(if I were the) King of the Forest

I am fairly certain that if I owned a fleet of vans that I made a business of renting to the public and I donated them gratis to, say, the McCain campaign to drive their volunteers around that would constitute an in-kind campaign contribution and would be subject to the limits imposed by various campaign finance laws and regulations. If Bill Gates decided to outfit some politician’s campaign offices with Microsoft Word without charging them for it I am sure the same thing would apply. If a sign-maker contributed campaign signs, or the owner of a television station contributed air-time for campaign ads I am sure those would both count as contributions as well.

So why can Springsteen or Streisand contribute what amounts to some tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of concert without tripping over those same regulations?

Anyone who has lived in a community with a large student population can tell you that they are admirably idealistic and will reflexively support any and all expensive or intrusive solutions to local problems that they judge to be of paramount concern. Unfortunately, their insulation from the community distorts their perspective on such judgments, and the fact that their relative poverty and short tenure means they will never live with the consequences of supporting such solutions, either monetarily or socially, blinds them to the tradeoffs involved.

In short, students learn their lessons about politics at the expense of the locals. They vote their ideals with no need to consider costs, free to congratulate themselves on their virtue and walk away from their mistakes when they graduate — while those left behind must live with the long-term consequences.

THAT debate format would actually tell us what the candidates believe in depth, give us a sense of how they analyze problems and what kinds of advisors they listen to, give us a real knowledge about their plans on a particular topic (and about what topcis they think are important), and give us a fighting chance at assessing the source material they rely on in forming their opinions and plans.

Has anyone noticed that those “unrepresentative” and “92 percent white, more rural and older than the rest of the nation” Iowans just favored the intellectual black man (and, by the way, a genuine “African American” given that he had an African father and an American mother) over the white populist by a rather large margin?

I would be comfortable with a President who serves a philosophical ideal. I would not be comfortable with a President who serves a Master.

Now that this site has moved into its own domain I suppose I ought to provide a link back to its original home, which is still relevant. Here it is:
I Want A Choice
It provides a brief commentary — and some recommendations — on our electoral process.
-apl
Update: The domain “IWantAChoice.com” has now been turned […]

Even before he took office those who hated George Bush (and hate is not too strong a word in this case) announced not only that they had no intention of treating him with any deference or respect, but also that they intended to apply equal disrespect and defiance toward the office of the Presidency for as long as he held it. That was bad enough coming from the political left outside the government, but when that attitude appears within the government as well — from those whose job it is impartially to implement the policies determined within the political realm by the Executive and the Legislature — it is closer to treason than to patriotism.

For your consideration, I would submit that such a move would have made it impossible for some relatively unknown and underfunded but charming southern governor — say someone like Bill Clintion — to have emerged as a serious candidate; and it would likely have prevented some brand-name candidate anointed and bankrolled by the political party establishment — say someone like George W. Bush — from having to confront any serious challenge or insurrection by the dissatisfied centrists who almost made John McCain the candidate in his place.

It has long been my contention that the first African American President and/or the first female President in America will be a Republican, for the simple reason that minorities and women who work their way up to levels of prominence in the Republican party tend to be there for reasons concerned with general economic growth, individual liberty, and social stability. Whether you think those concerns — and resulting platforms — are good or bad, they tend to be concerns and platforms that appeal to a broad centrist populace.

Jack Connors, Jr. argues (12 Jun) that the current revenue surplus in Massachusetts should be spent on increased Medicare reimbursements rather than being returned to the taxpayers from which it derived…using them to increase reimbursements for Medicare – or to fund benefit increases for any other entitlement program – is the worst possible use for the money.