Light/Breezes

Light/Breezes
SUNRISE AT DEATH VALLEY-Photo by Tom Cochrun

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

THE PERFECT CANDIDATE? & I'LL TAKE AN OXYGEN STRAIGHT UP

A CANDIDATE FOR THE FUTURE
   For years my Walter Mitty imagination kicks into high gear while in the shower. Not sure of the connection, but it's a place for great creative thinking.
   So, today I became the perfect presidential candidate, or conjured the qualities of one. What are the characteristics?
    A person who says the election is really about judgement, facility of mind, integrity and clarity of vision.  
    It is OK, absolutely OK to say that a mind can be changed. It is a sign of higher human reasoning, to do just that, reason, think about and even change your mind on an issue.  That is not flip flopping. Flip flopping is prevaricating or obfuscating. Reasoning is a good thing, this perfect candidate would tell the press and voters.
    It is asinine to presume to look for a man or woman "who has all the answers."  Those answers can come only through study, deliberation, consultation and a sense of history.  So, as perfect candidate, I'd say so.  I'd outline general principles, a foundational construct of values and delineate the names of policy experts, scholars, historians, political scientists, economists, military strategists, philosophers, theologians, artists and entrepreneurs whose advice and counsel I'd seek and who would shove back at me, while testing and forging my ideas. 
    I'd also be upfront with the voters and say, despite what my grand goals or visions might be, the reality of my Presidency would be determined by what happens in the world and through a kind of dance and/or wrestling match with the US Congress.  I can propose, but the truth is, what really happens is a result of the process of working and living with the other branches of government while confronting what ever nature, fate, Providence and other humans as individuals or as nations foist upon us all.
     So, the heck with gotcha games, playing to opinion polls, letting speech writers and strategists put words in your mouth, or worse, in your mind.  The heck with fanny kissing the big dollar fat cats or super pacs. We'll tell Americans what they are really doing is choosing a human being, who evinces qualities of leadership and judgement, who is ready to sacrifice for the common good of all, even those who will hate and vilify you. They will have a chance to vote for someone who is steadfast, honest, candid and wants to see a better day for all.
     Yea, you go boy!  Then I turned off the shower.
   
MAKE MINE PURE
     Have you been to an Oxygen bar?  I caught this one on a 
recent odyssey through Las Vegas.  They are all over the place and in some communities are as popular as coffee shops.  
     You pay the "bar tender" and you get a few hits of Oxygen, in a flavor or color of your choice.  Just in case
the air you are breathing is not enough for you, you can
buy some.  Yep, we can now buy and sell the air we breath.
See you down the trail.

5 comments:

  1. Once when Judy and I were producing an infomercial in Las Vegas, one of our interviewees told how he had awakened with a hangover and went to a spa in the casino and got a couple of shots of oxygen. That was pre-Oxygen Bars.

    Oh, and your campaign? Nice thoughts. I'd give you about 2% in the polls.

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  2. Well, that is 2% more than I had when I stepped in the shower. Maybe I need a shot of Oxygen.

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  3. When I was in the Army, I trained at Fitzsimmons Army Hospital in Denver. I was in an operating room rotation and one morning our chief surgeon was huffing oxygen before we wheeled the patient in the room. He was killing a bad hang over. That night a couple of pals and I went out and hit some clubs in Denver. I tried the oxygen the next morning and sure enough Major MacDonald was right, it is an excellent hangover cure.

    I'm reading Smith's new biography of Ike. His presidency was far to the left of anyting we've seen since Kennedy. Interesting the same conservative harangs we hear today were being voiced in the 50's. Ike pretty much told them to STFU.

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  4. You are right about a candidate admitting to changing their mind about an issue, except when it can be proven over and over that this is done merely to collect votes from people who wouldn't vote for you if they knew what you really thought. But I have to laugh when I hear people say he isn't one of us, or he isn't like us. The last person I want in the White House is a person like ME. I'd be hiding in the bathroom with diarrhea for four years or until they threw me out of office. No, we need someone smarter and more capable than the average person.

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  5. Aren't you assuming a voting population that wants a thoughtful, mindful president?

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