Much has been made about the early start of the 2008 presidential election. With all the attention and activity it seems like we should be voting next month instead of next year. This fast start got me to thinking of how we could slow down the process. Here is my suggestion; we could require currently elected persons to resign before forming an exploratory committee.
Basically under the current rules, dozens of public officials can raise money and campaign without taking the risk of losing their current job. It's a joke to think that any of the sitting senators running have any interest in their current position as they fly from state to state raising money and giving stump speeches. If they had to resign it would at the very least force them to postpone their campaign plans until they were ready to give up their current perks.
While this might give an advantage to candidates who are already out of office, I think many of them would not be pushed into the race as early if they thought the other candidates would also wait. The sole reason Guilani and Romney are out there already is because McCain has been campaigning nonstop since the 2000 election. Besides, I am not that opposed to giving outside candidates more opportunities to level their chances against sitting legislators and governors.
One final advantage my proposal would provide is a way of weeding out the noncommitted candidates. No way do Dennis Kucinich or Duncan Hunter waste our time if they had to resign their congressional seats. They have it too good to risk everything on some long shot presidential bid. This change would limit the field to only serious candidates who have already demonstrated at least some kind of risk and commitment. The only problem with this suggestion is that it would take a sitting elected official to introduce the bill and none of them want to change the status quo that benefits them.
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2 comments:
You know, after talking last night, I was looking at Obama's website today and noticed he is somewhere every day next week. I wondered how in the world he is doing his job.
Your proposal makes sense, in that it would limit the field to only serious contenders. But, I think it would keep some important voices out of the process. Sure, Kucinich has no chance of winning EVER, but I appreciate his prespective in the process and raising some issues and alternatives.
How about outlawing US Senators from running for President? It just seems like senators (both parties) that run for president are a waste of time and money. I could probably name 50 senators that have run for president in my lifetime and lost and I can't think of any that became POTUS.
The job of a senator is to 1)stall & obstruct everything attempted by the other party, 2)hold hearings on anything and everything but don't actually do anything about the subject, and 3) oink for pork.
Senators are trained to be obstructionists and political game players. I prefer a good governor with some executive experience and without the legislative baggage and IOUs.
I'm waiting for your next Barry Bonds post. Here are some ideas: Who will he blame next? Or maybe some good fiction like why he's a much better slugger than Hank Aaron/Babe Ruth/Josh Gibson, etc. Perhaps a top 10 list of endorsement opportunities for Bonds? Or perhaps 15.8 million reasons to cheer against the SF Giants this year.
By the way, I heard Bonds may run in '08. At least he's not a senator.
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