All my life I've been reading how the media's so Liberal. I don't doubt that the press has been far tougher on McCain then Obama, but perhaps it's not the Liberal bias that Republican's would like us to believe. Perhaps it's the constructive campaign that Obama attempted to run, and the destructive campaign run by the Republican's, whether McCain was personally involved, or not.
What Bush and the Swift Boat people did to Kerry is no different, but Kerry didn't fight back. Obama was smart enough to answer the charges but still maintain a campaign that was mostly positive while turning the negative back at McCain.
Republican's everywhere should have been condemned for not condemning Palin for not putting down people for saying things like "Kill Obama", but this was just dismissed as zealous voters. McCain has fought this campaign in the same manner he so despised when Bush went after him in the same way in 2000. McCain has sold his soul to get the nomination, his prior stance on taxes had been that the wealthy were getting to large a cut from Bush, there's plenty of video of him saying it floating around, he can't deny it. McCain has drunk Bush's, or Carl Rove's Kool Aid which turned him into the Alter Bush, unfortunately he did so at a time where Bush ranks lower then any President in recorded history.
The reality is, we'll probably never know how even handed the media can be, at least not as long as the Republican's fully endorse the actions of groups like Swift Boat. I know the Democrat's have Move On.ORG, etc. but it's nothing when compared with the Republican attack machine.
Politics is all about spending great sums of money and until that's taken out of the game it probably will get dirty. IMHO no one intending to run for political office should be permitted to campaign whatsoever. Campaigns for Party endorsements would be a series of debates three months before the election, the Party nomination would come two month before the election after Primaries were held, the last two month would have a series of debates or speeches, but in every case all viable candidate will be present. All such events will be televised, but no commercials would be permitted during the campaign, not from the candidates, the party, swiftboat, etc.
I agree with Charley Gibson that Presidential Elections are different than the others, they'd have regional Primaries, four regions a month apart, so they'd start roughly six months before the general election. Four months of Primaries consisting of only joint presentations and/or debates would proceed the convention where the Nominees would be chosen, one day Conventions. There would then be two months of debates, speeches, etc which in each case have all qualified candidates speaking or debating, all appearances would be televised and available on demand for those who couldn't see them live. In some cases the presentation, with or without questions, would be made on a single subject. In some cases the audience might be subject matter experts, in others the general public. Wouldn't it be interesting to see Obama and McCain discussing their Tax Plans with an audience of Economists who could ask questions, or Healthcare with an audience of Doctors and Health Insurance Professionals. The order of Presidential Primaries would change each time so over 16 years each region would have each position once.
I know this won't happen, Politics is to big financially to ever take the money out of it. Imagine the world where Politicians couldn't take money from anyone but the salaries, which would have to be substantially higher. Imagine lobbyist who had to win over support based on issues instead of contributions. It won't happen, it can't happen, it's all about money, and it just can't be taken away.
I do agree with McCain on earmarks, but not that all they money in them is bad. I believe legislation should only be for the purpose intended. I don't mind Obama going for a new Planetarium Projector that costs millions, I've loved seeing Planetarium Shows, but if it's justified for the Govt. to provide it to the community, a bill that says so ought to be what justifies it. I really do believe there's justification for much that's funded by earmarks, but the justification has to be more than "If you support my planetarium projector I'll support your study of a butterfly found only in your district." What I'm saying is all spending should be properly justified, if the justification is proper the spending should be authorized.
This is purely an exercise at writing, it won't and can't happen, but perhaps with Obama as President and a Democratic Congress we can establish regulations that make things work as they should. The cause of our economic problems wasn't any single event, it was a general lack of all sort of regulations. We've had Boards of Directors of all sorts of companies give absolutely absurd bonuses to all sorts of officers in companies whether they make money and hire more employees, or lose money and fire all sorts of employees. We've had the SEC permit hedge funds to operate so unregulated that they can make or bring down almost any company by their manipulations. We've had banks encouraging people to take loans they knew would become problems without caring, they could make a quick profit and package and sell the loans. Homebuyers were told not to worry about ARM adjustments because when they do, we'll get you a new one at rates that are better then our fixed rates, look at the rates today, ARM's are as high or higher than the fixed rates, the Banks don't want to hand those being foreclosed on a way out.
If you think I'm frustrated by what's happening in our world, you're right, I just hope that when Obama takes control he gets the assistance of a Democratic Congress and makes the changes needed to set things right. The last time Democrats had this opportunity was the first two years of the Clinton Administration, rather than working with Clinton little was done and two years later we had the Republican Revolution. Hopefully both Congress and the Administration will learn from that catastrophe so it doesn't happen again. I'm tired of the expression, I'm not a member or an organized Political Party, I'm a Democrat.
Gary |
