Monday, March 3, 2008


We are clearly a nation of excess. We are too heavy. We have too many toys. We have an unending choice of television channels. Undeniably, we have an interminably long election process

Why is it necessary for the candidates to declare their intentions to run for President seemingly the moment after the President's hand leaves the bible when being sworn in? Is there a reason we have to be subjected to virtually the identical speech hundreds and hundreds of times? Day after day, we see and hear clips of a candidate espousing the same position, or the identical vision on the critical issues of our time. Hour after hour, we are subjected to minute analysis of every conceivable way to dissect each syllable set forth. Moment after moment, we are given the most up to date data on how we feel, or how they think we feel, on every nuance relating to every theoretical matter affecting our decision.

Isn't there a time to say we don't want to hear another syllable from anyone related to the Presidential race? Isn't there a moment when we are not going to have to be told AGAIN that he is not experienced enough, or she is not going to be ready and right , or he is too old and not really as conservative as he would like the conservatives to believe?

Can we not envision a scenario in which we have a finite time, not stretching into years, to obtain sufficient information to make a reasoned decision on the candidate of our choice? Cannot we reach a moment where our political campaigns don't require an infusion of money that could seemingly solve many of our country's financial woes? How about the radical thought of letting us all decide on the same day who is to be the candidate for our party? We are apparently able to all cast votes on one day to determine the President, so how hard could this be as a method to determine who is going to run for the Democratic and Republican parties?

I don't know if ever there is a way to convince us to become thinner and more fit, to discard our Hummers or to decide that television shows on every conceivable topic are not an absolute necessity. I don't know if ever there is a way that we can think smaller. However, I for one, vote for the condensed version of political mania. Let us stop with Super Tuesday, super delegates ( whatever they are) and super sizing everything in our lives. Let's just take a deep breath and simplify.

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