HunterByrd

What you know but do not hear...

The great problems today, Iranian and Korean nuclear power, the coming baby-boom on Social Security and Medicare, immigration, health care, and dependency on foreign oil, are the intractible ones. They are the issues that fester like the wound from a rusty nail in the heal of our national foot. None of them were addressed hard and head-on by either candidate, because a politician can go only so far and remain viable.

Proof? Look at the Keyes - Obama race in Illinois. Mr Alan tells it like it is; there isn't a lot of soft rhetoric in his argument. And he will lose...because he speaks his mind to the detriment of his viability... yet he speaks from his heart, God bless him!

If the public won't abide honest discussion of clear problems -- and our leaders can't lead opinion -- then the problems simply fester. In this campaign, neither Bush nor Kerry has risen above that dilemma.

That suggests that many of our largest social problems will progressively worsen until they get so bad that we're forced to deal with them. Or they deal harshly with us. This is the true deadlock, and it may be incurable.

These are the words of Robert Samuelson, WaPo columnist. I agree. Our political campaigns are about one-upmanship in the world of talking points and surveys. It's about the spin and how 'evil' one candidate can make the other look. Mr Samuelson does have a point, re the deadlock.

We often wish our candidate would just 'blow and go' with the truth...really let the other guy 'have it'. But that doesn't happen, because the respective campaigns have to keep it in line, else votes will be lost! Again, Alan Keyes is a case in point.

Mr Samuelson quotes 19th century British historian James Bryce: "public opinion stands out . . . as the great source of power, the master of servants who tremble before it". True then. True today. Alas, foresake, and foresooth.

In any event, the long-anticipated election shall occur.