With his winnings in the Texas Republican primary, Mitt Romney has sewed up his party's presidential nomination. The election craziness has officially begun.
Think the buildup to the Superbowl is crazy? The 24/7 news cycle has been building this contest since the day after election day in 2008.
Here's a suggestion: This time, let's have an adult conversation about what direction we want our country to take, and let's ignore those tempting "shiny objects" along the way.
By "shiny objects" I mean all those soap opera-like distractions that the media like to use to hype ratings or sell papers. They allow lots of bluster, but don't really address the fundamental issues.
Case-in-point: Today's news tells us that the Romney campaign has put an iPhone app up on the Apple site which misspells America as "Amercia." I'm sure that Mr. Romney knows the correct spelling, and I'm sure that he's not the one responsible for the misspelling. Shiny object sighting!
"Gaffes" are usually shiny objects. Someone who appears on TV identified as a party "strategist" will say something dumb and the opposing party will go into its high-dudgeon act demanding that the candidate disavow the statement.
The truth is that most of the pundits on TV identified as party "strategists" have no official connection to the party or the campaign. If they had a connection, they would be identified as a campaign manager or White House aide. They're just party members who make part of their living by appearing on TV to give their personal viewpoint. Mitt Romney shouldn't have to disavow every stupid comment made by a Republican, nor should Barack Obama need to disavow statements made by individual Democrats who are not his official representative.
People the candidate knows are often shiny objects. Rev. Wright seems a bit off the wall, but so does "birther" Donald Trump. Neither Rev. Wright nor Donald Trump are running for office. Let's concentrate on the records of the candidates themselves.
And while we're at it, let's leave religion out of it. Article VI of the Constitution couldn't be more clear: "The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States." [Emphasis mine.]
What are the things that matter? Of course, there is the issue of national security. But that also involves the economy. Thomas Friedman said that he wouldn't presume to give advice to Hillary Clinton, but if he had been advising her, he would have suggested that she tell the president that she wanted the TOP national security job: Sec. of Education.
Friedman identifies the five things that have made America great:
1) Education
2) Building and continually modernizing our infrastructure.
3) An immigration policy that brought the best minds in the world to our shores, educated them, then kept them here.
4) Government support for basic research and development.
5) Implementation of necessary regulations on private economic activity.
These are the things I want to hear about from the candidates, not the shiny objects. Now you may look at this list and think: "We can't possibly do these things now, times are tough." Well, there was a time in our history when a president created the land-grant college system, built a transcontinental railroad and created the National Academy of Sciences. All during tough times. The president's name was Lincoln, and he did it all during a really tough time known as the Civil War.
No comments:
Post a Comment