I'm tempted to say that there is only one - in the classic words of Bill Clinton, "It's the economy, stupid."

Second would be our military involvement in the Middle East, including Iraq, Afghanistan, and all the other places we currently have troops. There is increasingly wide-spread agreement from those outside the Beltway that we need to get out now, and no sign this is happening.

Third would be the erosion of personal liberties, as per the TSA and the Patriot Act.

One could go into pages of further explanation, but really those are the only combination of issues that count.

The top five political issues that need answering during the upcoming 2012 presidential campaign is as follows:

1. The nation's economy is the first problem which needs to be addressed. This is the first thing on the mind of the voters.
2. Unemployment is the next thing that needs executive attention. Our unemployment rates remains above 9% and this is most unacceptable to the American population. We have far too many individuals who are unemployed or under employed.
3. The housing market must see improvement. When one in eight homes is sitting vacant, it demands that the housing market be given priority.
4. A plan must be developed and adopted to reduce the national debt and the annual budget to prevent the government's credit rating from being reduced from a AAA rating to a negative rating by Standard and Poor..
5. The wars in three countries must be addressed and, hopefully, brought to a successful conclusion.

There are additional problems which need attention, but this five must, of necessity, be addressed by all the presidential candidates.

The largest issue that we should be concerned about is the economy. For all parts of the economy to improve, we need jobs. If we can lower the unemployment rate to respectable levels, then that will help all sectors of the economy because people will have more money to spend. Of course there is the problem on how to create jobs in the United States. In my opinion, the thing that the government has to do is provide incentives for companies to build their products in the United States as opposed to places like China, India, and Mexico. The incentives could be things like taxing imports.

Another large problem that we have in the United States is the multiple wars that we are fighting. These wars are costing us over a billion dollars every single day. I would say to just withdraw our troops and let the Middle East deal with their problems themselves. We are fighting a never ending war. It is best to get out sooner than later.

For the budget deficit, we will need to do multiple things to lower it. We will need to make some cuts in programs. We will also need a reform for our social programs like Medicare and Social Security that are bankrupting us. Our social programs are on an unsustainable path and they need to be changed. We will also need to increase taxes slightly. Also if the unemployment rate falls, that would mean an increase of tax revenue. The dept won't go away by itself. We will all have to make sacrifices.

(1) The economy is topmost, and this means everything from dealing with the deficit to joblessness to how to spend and how to cut spending.

(2) Our failing educational system. No Child Left Behind is a farce and has further weakened an already eroding system.

(3) Resolving the coming conflict over whether to engage as we are in the same old way in the world or whether to become a more isolationist nation. Neither solution is ideal, so how do we find a third way?

(4) Health care. We still have millions without health insurance, and admittedly the current bill, though a start, does not address the situation nearly as well as it should.

(5) This last is a not very well-understood problem, but the crisis in our system of checks and balances. I would (a) either repeal the 22nd Amendment and allow any president to run as many times as a senator or congressperson; or (b) initiate a program of constitutional reform that would impose term limits on all branches of government including the judiciary. I really do think that this last may become urgent one day while we're all sleeping.--Johndy