Debates More a Beauty Contest Than A Test of Knowledge Or Commitment

Okay, we’ve heard a lot of platitudes and conservative jargon, not much else when you think about it. Everybody is going to change the world….and we accept those good intentions and not to disparage the candidates who are trying to maintain a high profile in this popularity contest.



But the fact remains that ‘showboating’ does not address my needs and I happen to think that my needs are pretty representative of what most of the public feels.



So, I’ve decided to list some of my concerns and see where the candidates come down on these…



I don’t expect to get a solid 100% from my candidate, whomever he or she might be, I would just like to be convinced that they've done their homework on the substantive things not just the stuff that looks good at forums and debates. We're not talking about bombast here but meaningful content...



First of, I want one tough son of a bitch to represent me whether it's a man or a woman...



They are going to have to be tough to survive the maelstrom that they will be exposed to.



There's no doubt about that.



As soon as the Republican’s elect their candidate, you can be sure that memories of what really happened will disappear faster than an icecream cone shared by six kids on a hot day!



And guess who's going to get the blame?



Not only will our candidate need to be tough, they will have to know how to get things done immediately! No time for a Jimmy Carter; this has to be a candidate who can stand up from Day One...



Right now, the only priority we here about is the War. This damned war that we should get out immediately. Nobody except Kucinich addresses the fact that we should have never had a war; that is insane to contemplate war in the first place except as perhaps a last resort. (I will admit that Obama hits some good notes here!...)



Compare this with that maniac Tancredo who is ready to bomb Mecca and Medina… We sure have a bunch of bright light republican candidates…(The rest believe the Earth is 4000 years old and your great, great antecedents rode a dinosaur--these are definitely who I want running our technology-driven country).



Biden has had the right idea and he’s had it all along. I know Joe and he’s been struggling with this entire War issue since we got mired in it. And I disagreed with him in many ways when he originally talked about the need to stay there. But for the last several years, it is to his credit that he worked it out through numerous visits and weighing what the government is saying compared with what he saw with his own eyes.



No, I want somebody who recognizes that a vote does not mean democracy.

It means Iraq got three different ideological groups in power who not only don’t want to work together, they want to kill each other as fast as possible.



This is not the basis for a political solution.



What Joe suggested is partition and bringing politics and rule down to the local leaders and rulers. That’s about the best we can do.



Under the circumstances, the longer we stay there, the longer we fuel the bloodshed. Period.



But the War will be over and then it will become time to consider all of the other issues that have been overshadowed by the War.



I want to know what the candidates are going to do about a myriad of things.



From global warming to jobs, from the economy to NAFTA, from immigration policy to rebuilding America.



This is what I need to hear.



But not only that, I don’t want sugar-coated 'solutions, ' I want to hear real world stuff like what are they going to do specifically about each of the above problems.



I haven’t heard it and I’ve listened to each of their forums.



I don’t really blame the candidates, per se, because the nature of the forums, debates do not lend themselves to much beyond trying to protect yourself after somebody’s accused you of something.



I would rather see each candidate get a half hour on maybe Charlie Rose to answer these key questions.



What are the issues as you see them.



And specifically tell us what you are going to do about them.



Charlie Rose had Joe Biden on last week and I learned more from that Show than I did from any of the speeches that I’ve heard before.



Right now, I get the distinct feeling that the candidate who speaks my truth is least likely to win the contest, Dennis Kucinich.



And that’s how it is with beauty pageants more than horse races.



But everyone should get a chance including the maverick, Mike Gravel from Alaska who has a lot to say but little time to do anything but yell back at his colleagues. He, too, deserves to be heard.



This won’t happen unless we let the media know how we feel.

Or perhaps organizations like Move-On.



We all know that electing somebody to the office of president without studying his or her qualifications and experience is a short cut to entropy.



Now, armed with foreknowledge, we should all be as tough as hell in our responses to the media.



Nobody ever said that maintaining democracy was going to be easy!



Les Aaron



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