Plus/Minus of an early campaign

On the surface it sounds like a big win for the country. Voters have nearly a year’s head start learning about the candidates’ backgrounds and politics. As Jay Leno's jaywalk series plainly shows, most people of voting age don't even recognize the faces of the candidates, let alone have knowledge of any particular candidate's position on major issues.
When thousands of lives and billions (trillions) of dollars are being sacrificed to a war which may extend over several generations, we owe our undivided attention to the policies and promises of a future president.

From the perspective of the baby boomers, I relish the switch to politics from the mind numbing and never ending exposés about Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. Since we are putting the nation's future in hock past their eyeballs, we at least owe those future generations the courtesy of knowing why. However, it may only be wishful thinking to suppose the public will stay tuned to these most important of concerns. In all likelihood they will simply change the channel. As Jay Leno again says, “We get the government we deserve.".

One huge minus to an early campaign involves the early elimination of candidates whose campaigns couldn't raise enough money to gain parity in the Caucasus. Well-financed candidates were able to gain early momentum while late bloomers like Ron Paul got sacrificed on the altar of grassroots. It looks as though special-interest groups will trump the mamas and papas every time. Five dollars here and ten dollars there don’t amount to much when parking fees alone can amount to $500,000 in the year before the primary. The fact that Hillary Clinton had to "lend her campaign" $5 million at this stage in the process just to "hang in there” with Senator Obama shows how big a role early money plays in today's political climate.

Only time will tell whether the nation's affairs will hold sway over our celebrities’ affairs. We can't, after all, expect a nation whose rocket scientists aren't smarter than a fifth grader to pay serious attention to a two-year discussion of election politics. One thing that should be clear after such lengthy debate, however, is that we should have forced the candidates to have clearly expressed their opinions and positions. Their party’s platform should also be abundantly clear.

Whether we can keep a President accountable for his promises is another issue entirely. We have seen the powers of the presidency expanded to the point where it is fair to say Congress is now irrelevant. The fact that a democratically controlled Congress is now merely a rubber stamp to a Republican president is unprecedented. The fact that war crimes and blatant civil rights violations occur without redress by the President and his men doesn't bode well for our country's future. In a recent commentary by Keith Obermann he notes that our vice president needs to be careful what countries he visits after office, lest he be hanged for war crimes. It sickens me to witness our country's leaders compared to Hitler's henchmen. However, if we citizens allow our leaders to invade sovereign nations without provocation, we deserve the comparison. Lord help us if we continue to allow our leaders to help themselves to the nation’s wealth from positions above the law.