Wrong. a presidential candidate has to sell themselves… hard. Rudi and Fred are at the point they are because they are both inexperienced at national campaigns and they failed to sell themselves to America. It’s that simple.

I have found it strange that for many candidates running for President, the credentials that are presented as strengths turn out to have more than one instance of problematical views which, put at the National level, can cause harm. Without addressing such issues, which is not being done by the MSM, debates, web sites and such, and the amount of insulation that candidates put between themselves and the population, the ability to put any trust in such candidates is suspect. And I have little trust in political families to actually look out for the people in a democracy as that starts to look like mafia families looking out for their own, first. It speaks ill of our democracy and republic to have such failing political institutions that we need worry about such things…

But then my worries about democracy aren’t particularly modern in flavor… and we were warned about how such things go wrong over time.

I mean seriously, how can a jet fighter fly on corn?

Another example. the government has now banned Edison bulbs because Americans campaigned for ‘1 billion mercury bulbs in America’ and got it, now these same fine Americans pretend they had nothing to do with what the government provided them.

McCain voted against drilling in ANWAR yet Independents insist America must ween herself off foreign oil.

McCain is as bad as Gore is regarding the ‘backward Greenie’ issue, so his ‘tough on terror’ seems rather hallow.

I voted for a mayor who switched from Democrat to Republican because too many Dems were on the ticket, he campaigned, with Rudy Guiliani’s endorsement, on ‘tough on terror’ only to wind up telling me that ‘terrorism is no big deal and to get a life’ then, when he became a nanny-statist Greenie who bans people’s lifestyle choices he switches to Independent;
now how am I to believe an Independent politican when they act just like Socialist Democrat?

The Independent position is silly in an anal retentive way.

I translated your diatribe into an immature rant, to make a point, one that was understood and discussed but not put into law for lack of either trust that the law wouldn’t backfire, or for mere naive trust in human nature. ALL modern “crazy” leaders of world-power status were democratically elected.

In fact, if you read ‘World on Fire’ you will delve into the fascinating story of say Zimbabwe, where with help from conquering outside forces, suddenly had DEMOCRACY. And some minor race/culture had been the million dollar merchants and farmers, who they either ran out of town (or in the Congo, de-limbed), and nobody knew how to fix a tractor, let alone how to drive one, so…and the leader finally admitted this to his credit, uh, “we are now f’d” and must invoke Plan B Brutality (or what happened after that, I forget).

There is a difference between DEMOCRACY, and you rant against it, and Constitutionally DEFINED (limited) Civil Societies that happen to be democratic.

“Direct Democracy” is bunk, since who has the time to sit around in meetings with civil planners and engineers and financiers etc. to plan where ten new bridges should be built/re-built over the next five years…and then onto the topic of that new strip club in the unzoned area nobody thought had any property value, but now has a parking lot the size of a small third world country.

Do we really want our first non-Reganite-small-gov’t BIBLE THUMPER in the White House either, one who would create a HUGE backlash in the other branches of gov’t?

Stop the drug war. Stop policing consensual “crimes in general” except child molestation, and DO NOT regulate people’s life decisions, unless you want coat hanger abortions and drug lords who build atomic stealth submarines that dig down under the mantel upon reaching the Gulf Coast, containing Cocainamia, a newly researched and industrially produced form of 10,000X potency white powder.

You self-contradict yourself, except you blame democracy. That sort of thing usually turns citizens into propaganda following robots, like pigs at a trough.

Civil Society is what is missing, but that wont kick in until the 78 year old Boomers who never saved up for retirement die off, since they are one-topic voters: FREE MEDICINE.

Do you see kids lining up to vote? For WHAT? What they don’t already have? Cheap pot? Two-pill morning after abortion pills, based on normal prescription “The Pill” dosages? More free music? A drug cartridge for their video game virtual reality box?

Remember Paul Tsongas? He ran after bone marrow transplantation for lymphoma, claimed he was cured. Nope, not how it played out.

Of course I am aware of McCainÔøΩs extraordinary courage and of the sacrifice he made on behalf of us all. He is a true American hero.

That is beside the point. His wartime injuries are debilitating and persistent and he is old. I am of the same generation, in good shape and run a business but I can’t go 24/7 anymore.

Thomas Sowell has a compelling article this week on Townhall.com on this issue. Regardless of McCainÔøΩs prior war experiences, does the country need a 71 year old Senator as a leader in these dire times?