More of the same
I watched a little bit of the debate(s) this past weekend, and I was amazed at the inability of the candidates to stay on topic. All, without fail, of these people would make good TV pitch people, being able to (almost) seamlessly segue from almost any topic back to how they, and not anyone else, pointed this problem out weeks before anyone else, always failing to note that they took no substantive action, but noticing that the other candidates were always off-base or simply wrong in their opinions or prognostications.
I would really like to see a candidate say yes, I called that one wrong, based on what we knew at the time, but in light of what I know now....
I would also like to see a detailed answer to a question that emphasizes the candidates own views and studiously avoids pointing out the deficiencies of all other candidates positions. The contrast will be clear to most voters and it will wear well with the electorate at large that they are given some credit for being able to see the difference.
Quite a few things were said, naturally, about the war in Iraq, and what has happened, and what should have happened, and what we are all afraid will happen. The same with health care, but not so much with the environment, ("global warming" too the place of the environment--very significant and urgent to be sure, but it is an issue de jour, to see is as less then a piece of a larger picture undercuts the entire issue).
One of the things that I feel got the short shrift in the entire debate, on both sides of the party line, was the economy, stupid. The fact that it was glossed over in such a wholesale manner says a whole lot more than all the statistics and WSJ columns you can get your hands on.
On the subject of the mideast, for any candidates who might be reading this, I am no longer interested in hearing any recriminations over how badly this has been handled by the Administration and the Congress. Truth is, it has been. I want to hear a quick concise assessment of where we are right now, where we want to be in a year and why, and what it will take to get there. A short follow up on the repercussions of this policy would then be appropriate.
On the issue of health care, same criteria, except I want a more in depth analysis of the market's role in how we got to be in this mess, what the market draws off in terms of administrative costs and inefficiencies, and what role the government has as an adjudicator.
We deserve better from these people.
A late update:
The Iranian government, speaking through the agency of the Revolutionary Guard in five swift boats in the Strait of Hormuz, posed a scenario this weekend that will reverberate through the electoral process. Make no mistake, this gesture was intended not simply to flip the bird to George W., who happens to be in the neighborhood this week, (we all do that), it is also intended to put a bit of a spin on the hearts and minds of those voters in the U.S. of A. who are preparing to decide on a new leadership regime.
How they were trying to spin things is not clear, (perhaps they themselves don't know), but they were trying to be sure that they were in the picture....
I would really like to see a candidate say yes, I called that one wrong, based on what we knew at the time, but in light of what I know now....
I would also like to see a detailed answer to a question that emphasizes the candidates own views and studiously avoids pointing out the deficiencies of all other candidates positions. The contrast will be clear to most voters and it will wear well with the electorate at large that they are given some credit for being able to see the difference.
Quite a few things were said, naturally, about the war in Iraq, and what has happened, and what should have happened, and what we are all afraid will happen. The same with health care, but not so much with the environment, ("global warming" too the place of the environment--very significant and urgent to be sure, but it is an issue de jour, to see is as less then a piece of a larger picture undercuts the entire issue).
One of the things that I feel got the short shrift in the entire debate, on both sides of the party line, was the economy, stupid. The fact that it was glossed over in such a wholesale manner says a whole lot more than all the statistics and WSJ columns you can get your hands on.
On the subject of the mideast, for any candidates who might be reading this, I am no longer interested in hearing any recriminations over how badly this has been handled by the Administration and the Congress. Truth is, it has been. I want to hear a quick concise assessment of where we are right now, where we want to be in a year and why, and what it will take to get there. A short follow up on the repercussions of this policy would then be appropriate.
On the issue of health care, same criteria, except I want a more in depth analysis of the market's role in how we got to be in this mess, what the market draws off in terms of administrative costs and inefficiencies, and what role the government has as an adjudicator.
We deserve better from these people.
A late update:
The Iranian government, speaking through the agency of the Revolutionary Guard in five swift boats in the Strait of Hormuz, posed a scenario this weekend that will reverberate through the electoral process. Make no mistake, this gesture was intended not simply to flip the bird to George W., who happens to be in the neighborhood this week, (we all do that), it is also intended to put a bit of a spin on the hearts and minds of those voters in the U.S. of A. who are preparing to decide on a new leadership regime.
How they were trying to spin things is not clear, (perhaps they themselves don't know), but they were trying to be sure that they were in the picture....
posted by eccentric recluse at 9:08 AM
1 Comments:
Reminded me a lot of when a comedian is on a talk show--always steering the conversation around to something they have a ready-made routine for.
They all looked pretty lame when the question was asked: if a city was nuked by a terrorist, what would you say, the day after, that we SHOULD have done to prevent it. Not a one responded precisely to the question.
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