The most over covered political race in the world

If D.C. is the most over covered city in the world, then the Presidential campaign of 2008 meets this standard. The reporting and pundit articles all seem so much closer to ESPN’s sports reporting about gaining advantages, preparation, and tactics to winning a game, a season, and the Super Bowl in the case of football. Tremendous amounts of “raised monies” go into hiring the “best and the brightest” in this 2008 political sport. As I read it right now, advantage goes to impressing the media and the pundits in the D.C. circle of writing. Seldom do I read about issues important to we citizens or even the required civility to discuss what problems we have, and practical solutions to these problems. ESPN is about sports entertainment, in the end. Our Nation is way above that.

For those that lament the accelerating 2008 campaign schedule, I agree. I especially sympathize with those who aspire to be President of the United States. The schedule is beyond their control, and past experience doesn’t help in knowing how to handle it at this way-to-early time. Imagine ESPN people predicting the 2008 NFL season. The 2007 season is going to be tough enough. Of course, ESPN won’t do it, and we would laugh at them if they tried to go out on a limb.

The problem (my word) is that so many politicians and some local citizens are trying to gain local advantage (some deserved, some not) to influencing the election of the next President of the United States in 2008. Right now advancing the whole cycle is the obvious dumb poo-poo way. What has gone wrong is the time for those aspiring politicians to go local, that is to know what is important locally, as in state. This entire accelerated process will die a natural death after 2008, I believe. Mostly, it is because it does not well serve us, we citizens who vote.

Citizens who vote count. The more cynical will say (for good reason) that money to solicit professional campaign funds and raisers, pay campaign mangers, and even pay campaign media managers will in the end make their paymaster the next President of the United States. I just respectfully disagree. Both those aspiring to the job, and those still plotting to the job, have to include ideas, pure and simple. And the ideas have to be domestic, and foreign. Somewhere the National Interest comes in to the discussion. How these ideas affect us locally will count a lot.

Even the aspirants for President of the United States must supercede this terrible pre-election evolving calendar and their hired guns recommendations, and tell us about their ideas about issues in unscripted ways. After all, the basic idea is still that they want our vote. I hope that has not changed.