Bookraft

The two best 2008 Presidential debates I have seen this year were both moderated by ABC TVs George Stephanopoulos. George managed to pull the candidates of each party out of the "I pledge allegiance to the Basest of the Base" promises and to get them to reveal some of their key political drivers. But even more revealing were the political pipedreams that emerged from both parties.

These are pipedreams because the candidates know full well that there are powerful, entrenched interests that will fight tooth and nail against any proposals that will curtail their scared cows. No I am not talking about Republican's Banning Gay Marriages or Democrats Actually Making a Dent on Global Warming. These may not turn out to be pipedreams.

No the real Bongo stuff was every major Republican candidate agreeing, (nudge nudge, wink wink) that a flat tax would be a good thing - clear out that baroque tax code. The Democrats similarly lit up the stage with their pledges to have Publicly Financed elections to limit the debilitating effect of lobbyists and special interests on current government. Big puffs of smoke here.

However, the one reform I would like to see is the primary schedule moved back to January to April - states primaries determined by a lottery (12 per month all on the same day) . The idea is to prevent what will happen on Feb 05 2008. The choice of presidential candidates will be effectively over. The wait until November election will leave both parties with huge opportunities for a)doing lots of expensive, droning much ado about nothing TV-ad campaigning and b)candidate regret - as the national and world conditions change suddenly the gal or guy we got looks rather limpid.

Now I don't smoke but of late I am working with a lot of hemp.