Midwest• Business came to a halt throughout much of the Northeast, South and Midwest.• In much of the South and Midwest, the proportion is below 15 percent, and often below 5 percent.• In the grain-growing Midwest, however, the roaring prices are simply a goldenwave of opportunity.• First, Engler comes from a decisive battleground of the 1996 election, the industrialMidwest.• Skyrocketing energy costs, especially in the Midwest, have erodedconsumers' disposableincome.• In the Midwest, introspection is practically forbidden.• Have such methods secured the Midwest for the Republicans in 1996?• Versions of it happened again and again throughout the Midwest during the Depression.