"What do you JU readers think?"

I think government is too big, and the country is also way too big, for us to adequately select leaders.

I think there are a lot of smart folks on this site, but I find them to be the exception. I hate to sound condescending, but what I think is what I think...and that is that the vast majority of human flesh on this planet carries with them a brain that doesn't really comprehend complex enough subject matter to enable them to make astute decisions on who should be running their government - yet...their vote counts.

The result? Votes based on marketing strategies. The result of that? Whoever has the wherewithal to forge the greatest marketing campaign becomes government leader. The result of that? Well, you stated it. We, Americans, must change if we want to survive. And what do we change? Intelligence level.

I rather like the voting system we have. What I do not like is that we do not have access to "the best person for the job" who is probably some chick from southern Illinois running a coffee shop a few blocks from the airport. Or a black guy that declared to himself that he was going to make it through to success. Or a Hispanic lady who would love to make some real changes in places things need to be changed, but runs a Flamenco dance school instead because what platform would any of these aforementioned candidates run on? My point here is that I think I can guarantee one thing. The person we elect is not the best person for the job - regardless of what office we're discussing. The person we elect, we elect because we deliberate to determine who the lesser clown is. That's no way to run an election, but it isn't going to change until people start caring more about how fast they can think than how fast they can run. Until they care more about how deeply complex they can think as opposed to how much weight they can lift. Until substance matters more than style.

Thinking leads to action. Good thinking is required for good action. Our thinkers are dieing and being replaced with not so great thinkers, and call anyone out on their lack of knowledge of something as simple as grammar, and watch the denial start. Not just the denial of the person you mention it to, but a bunch of others, as well. It's rampant across every internet forum I have seen, and these people are smart enough to use computers!

Enough rambling on my part...there are smarter people here than myself to chime in. The fact that I realize that still means something.

I think that Bush has compromised - on some things.  But the democrats have not.  Perhaps just a perception as I do not like NCLB, Drugs, or the SS non-solution (and it seems to me that Bush did all the compromising).

On somethings he has not compromised.  Should he have only gone half way into Iraq?

To many here, and in the media, compromise seems to be "You come to us" for the democrats. Instead of meeting in the middle.

True, Bush has done some compromising. But I still think he could have done better and owned up to some of his mistakes instead of sticking to his "I know what's best for you" attitude that I feel from him and going around pointing the finger at others. It's like MM's posted on his article about The Death of Common Sense where it was "survived by his 3 stepbrothers; I Know My Rights, Someone Else Is To Blame, and I'm A Victim."



Well, if you think about it Congress approved so in reality they compromised with him because, I don't know, they were stupid or they saw a benefit in it at first. I figure compromising has to make sense, you can't just bomb half of a country just to make a compromise with those who don't want all of Iraq destroyed.



That's why I said this is more of “my way or the highway” attitude. It's just that at the moments the Democrats stand out more even thought this is an attitude that plagues both parties. And I've been told I'm hardheaded, the Democrats out do me in that category.

Nicely put.