If We Had Taken This Simple Step Eight Years Ago,
We Wouldn't be in Iraq Today, We Wouldn't be Facing a Failing Economy, We Would Have Licked Global Warming and We'd Have a Lot More Friends in the World....

Let's Not Do It Again!

In this race to win the top spot, we tend to support our candidates based upon a view that tends to separate them from real life. We view them more or less in a vacuum which tends to provide a rather sterile perspective.

Who are these flesh and blood creatures we periodically elect to lead our country forward?

And are we entirely too casual about the process?

It’s at times like this when we need the proverbial nudge.

So here we go….

The fact is that in most cases, we have forgotten to ask the fundamental questions: What is your philosophy? How do you approach a problem? Do you tend challenges as discrete or as part of a more complex set of questions? And, most importantly, who are your icons; who influence you most? The last one is the time bomb.

If we knew who Bush’s friends were would we have paid him a second glance?
If we knew he didn’t read books, would we have voted for him? If we knew he had no intellectual curiosity, would we choose him to lead the free world?

Doubtlessly not!

We forgot to ask stuff like that when Bush ran the first and second time.

And it’s something we never seem to do; yet, their friends and colleagues tend to make them who they are; they are the one’s loyalty is owed to; the one’s they listen to.

Shouldn’t demand to know as much about their circle of friends as we do about the candidates themselves?

After all, we are going to have to live with them for a long, long time?.

And on a priori basis, it would seem that friends, who they are and what they believe, can provice a keen insight into a person, his or her character, their belief systems, their philosophy.

How do we know Mother Theresa? We know her for the people she’s helped.

How did we know Roosevelt? By his wife and friends.

Would we have elected Carter if we knew his friends?

Would the people have abandoned Stevenson if we knew the people in his live?

Wouldn’t we have rushed to tip the vote to Kennedy even faster if we knew what kind of quality advisers he would bring in?

I mean there are all sorts of examples.

Would we have voted in Bush if he had lined up his Cabinet appointments in advance—all under skilled and under motivated -- to represent the interests of the American people.

Probably, the friends and associates of the candidates are the most important people in the world right now, and most of them we may not even know.

Shouldn’t that be something critical? Shouldn’t it be something we address in the waning hours of this Primary season?

It would seem that way to this critic who has more than passing experience keeping track of who’s who and what’s what in politics for more than the last few decades. Think about it, and do yourself a favor….

Check it out!

Les Aaron
The Committee for Positive Change