Get my vote.

JACK
In all the years that I have been involved in politics, I have never been more frustrated than I am right now. I am not hung up on whether our next president is a republican, a democrat, a woman, an African-American, or a third party. I find that if I could choose certain parts of each candidate I might come up with a whole president. The overriding issue to me is the war in Iraq, but the only two candidates that say get out right now, are too radical in one direction or another, to be acceptable. I have always found that the extreme right and the extreme left do not answer the needs of the majority of people.

HILLARY
I am in totally agreement with you on this point. I think that Ron Paul has some great ideas, and that Dennis Kucinich has a lot to offer, but they both have positions that I cannot tolerate. Ron Paul, in particular, does not support a woman’s right to choose abortion if she wishes. This is a threshold issue that I cannot overlook. But, I can’t give my vote to someone just because they are Pro-Choice, as they may not hold other values that are important to me. Why do you think we end up choosing the lesser of two evils?

JACK
It seems to be what takes place in a majority of elections and it is getting worse, because so much of the basic honesty is disappearing. Richard Nixon, despite everything was an astute politician. His advice, which I believe is being listened to by the serious candidates, he said to be nominated if you’re Republican stay far right, and a Democrat should stay far left. After the candidate is chosen, in either party he should run like hell for the middle. The fact is also, today there are so many distractions that have nothing to do with the decisions that are to be made. An almost comic example was the recent vote by congress condemning Turkey for genocide against the Armenian people. This may well be true, but it happened in 1915. Why in blazes would the congress decide that now is the time to get tough on the Ottoman Empire? I sure would like to vote for a candidate that really says what he or she feels. I find this quality missing in both parties. The last time the Republicans had this one-character-fits-all was Ronald Reagan, and the Democrats, John F. Kennedy.

HILLARY
More than Bill Clinton, you think?

JACK
I would say the character I admired in Kennedy, more than Clinton, was when he made a mistake he admitted it, took full responsibility, and you could go on from there. This didn’t seem to be a Clinton quality. We just keep seeing the issues clouded by huge amounts of time paid to non-issues, and the lack of full debate to the real issues.

HILLARY
Also, something on that note that frustrates me, is that all of these candidates still hold positions in power for which they are shirking, or at best, seriously multi-tasking by campaigning around the country. There is more than a year until the next election, and yet if you turn on CSPAN, congress is virtually empty. There must be a better use of their time than stumping.

JACK
You’re absolutely right, our problem is in and out of congress. When the candidates appear on a talk show, I just don’t hear the hard questions being asked. And, when a candidate makes an outrageous statement it is rarely if ever challenged. I don’t know whether the breakthrough will come from a more aggressive press or a more honest politician.

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