Article: Speak For Yourself

CSM has another great editorial today. Jonathan Rowe discusses the inability or unwillingness of politicians to write their own speeches. This is an important point for me. It has become increasingly difficult to get a decent read on politicians as it has become easier to avoid ever speaking without a script, and moreover, a script they did not personally write. The Bush administration in particular has demonstrated how effectively this can be done. When you're never able to actually hear a person speak their own words or read a person's writing it is very difficult to really know what you're voting for. This was raised in an offhand way during the campaign with the accusations that W was not very intellectual. The way this manifests itself is that since everything he says comes from someone else's writing he is very vulnerable to being redirected, as he has been by the neo-con clique. This bothered me about Gore as well. I know Gore has, or at least used to have, things to say; he had some thoughtful and intelligent positions prior to serving as VP. But during the campaign it seemed he turned over the keys to the campaign bus to his political consultants. In my opinion the primary objective of debates and interviews should be to get the candidates speaking on issues of substance for which they don't have a prepared script. If I want to know their official positions I can read their websites, what I want is a chance to get a read on the raw, unfiltered person who is asking for my vote.

In rather more significant news, Britney Spears says she would not kiss any woman but Madonna. Also mentions she does not have orgies during her spare time and that she believes "we should just trust our President in every decision he makes and we should just support that." God Bless America.