At one point in my life I was a political junkie. In a past
career, I oversaw a television network’s political news coverage,
covered political conventions, spent time in Iowa and the primary
states and even traveled on a campaign plane or two. I am no longer
that interested.
At one point in my life I was a political junkie. In a past career, I oversaw a television network’s political news coverage, covered political conventions, spent time in Iowa and the primary states and even traveled on a campaign plane or two. I am no longer that interested. Maybe it is because “with age, comes wisdom,” but frankly I think it is because I don’t have the intestinal fortitude for what has become the never-ending presidential campaign season.
Turn on any of the cable news networks, or the Sunday morning interview programs and all the talk is about the 2008 presidential contest. There have already been a half dozen debates between all the candidates in each party. This all started as soon as the ballot boxes closed in last year’s congressional elections.
I realize that for many, the daily coverage of the candidates scrounging for primary or caucus votes is entertaining, and the press certainly loves the horse race aspects of the long slog. While there are seemingly a dozen candidates seeking their party’s nominations, the press doesn’t think that’s enough and has created a cheering section to persuade Al Gore and Fred Thompson to enter the race and blow away the existing candidates.
It all kind of makes me long for the days of the proverbial smoke-filled back rooms, when picking the candidates was the job of party elders instead of the very public sausage-grinding process we currently “enjoy.” It isn’t that I favor the old days, it is just that there is so much we as a country could be doing if we weren’t distracted – yes, distracted – by the airtime and newsprint space devoted to an election that is more than six months away from even seeing the first votes cast.
If we weren’t focused on the political horse races, we might be able to find workable answers to health care, education, transportation and other obstacles to better lives. And, that doesn’t even discuss Iraq, military strength or the other inter-governmental challenges around the world. Instead, we ponder what candidates might do if they survive the gantlet and win the presidential election 16 months from now. Members of the House and Senate are on the road – collecting and spending hundreds of millions of dollars to campaign, instead of working in Washington to solve the problems we face.
Please don’t consider this rant as an indication that I don’t care who our next president will be, because I do. I promise you that my interest level will widen considerably come this time next year. Right now, it is just way too early to get exorcised about a campaign that is so far over the horizon that the finish line can be seen only from space.
David Cohen, a member of this newspaper’s editorial board is a corporate speech writer. He serves as president of the Community Law Enforcement Foundation of Morgan Hill, a grassroots organization in support of the MOrgan Hill Police Department.
