Pols

The political and commercial morals of the United States are not merely food for laughter, they are an entire banquet.
- Mark Twain in Eruption

As a rightist, I am only peripherally interested in the Democratic Party presidential campaigns and I have not dedicated much time or effort in studying them. This morning on the way into work however, I was surfing around the XM channels for something to listen to and came upon an interview with Bill Richardson on C-Span radio. The theme for the day was health care, something that I am perhaps as confused by as most Americans are but with nothing else to listen to I settled for the thirty minute in-depth treatment from The Man Who Would Be President.

I have to say I was surprised at the lack of intellectual depth of Governor Richardson. He seemed to have trouble understanding some fairly simple questions. Maybe he was distracted by something else. Maybe he was just tired.

He had some statistics memorized--the ones that fit his scenarios--and he had a littany of buzz-words at hand but when pressed to explain in greater depth some of the more difficult details: how he would propose funding the numerous initiatives he mentioned, or whether offering medicare benefits to everyone over 50 might lead to a overburden of the program by perennial sick people who could not otherwise get insurance, it seemed to boil down to "It's the right thing to do." or "Our children deserve better." or similar.

As I said, it was really a shock to see how very banal this fellow is and how very ordinary his intelligence is. I certainly expected more and now I wonder if all of them are so limited.

Still, I found this lengthy treatment very helpful in that my opinions are now informed (at least in the case of this particular candidate) by something more than the soundbite capture which seems to define virtually everyone on the current political stage.

I hope to hear more from other candidates.