There Is No Air In The Windmills Of Their Minds

Every time we get closer to an election it becomes clear that some of the candidates out there are what might charitably be called dim bulbs, one taco short of a combo plate, etc.

I’m not talking about the people you simply disagree with. In California for example I am not particularly happy with either Jerry Brown or Meg Whitman. I think both have serious problems and I disagree with them on a number of issues. Indeed from my perspective some of the things they say and some of the positions they support are just plain dumb.

But that does not mean they are dumb, indeed both are pretty smart. It’s only logical that all of us would think that, at least on some level, those who disagree with us have dumb views but that does not make them dumb people.

However this time around we seem to have a healthy crop of people who are somewhere between just plain stupid and completely insane. While those on the right certainly have gotten more press for the stupid things they say it’s fair to say that there are people like this on both sides.

Needless to say folks like Sharron Angle, Christine O’Donnell and their compatriots have said some amazingly stupid things. Ken Buck has stepped up to the plate the last few days and Rand Paul and his supporters are just beyond stupid. Don’t even get me started on Joe Miller.

I could probably spend the next month listing all of them. I’m also sure that with a little research I could find another months worth of idiocy from the left.

The sad part of course is that the candidates we nominate for public office should be, as was once said, the best and the brightest. People should be honored to serve and it should be those who truly can accomplish things that are elected.

This doesn’t mean that we would limit service to only the elite, of course. Some of the greatest leaders in history have come from humble origins. Harry Truman was one of the best Presidents this nation ever had and he never set foot in college. President Eisenhower also had relatively humble origins yet rose to lead an army through war and a nation through peace.

By contrast Jimmy Carter was very well educated but didn’t exactly shine when it came to being President and many are questioning President Obama at this point.

Today I think we would almost have to dream of a world where candidates like Truman or Eisenhower were offering themselves but I do hope that we can get something better than what we have. In many contests it is a matter of deciding which lousy candidate we decide to vote for.

Is it really that hard ?