My Born Again Idea

"So who are you backing for president on your side -- Hillary,
Edwards, Obama, Vilsack -- who?" If I've been asked
that question once since the midterms, I've been asked it -- well,
once. Maybe twice. But I know it'll come up again
and again, so I've given it some thought. All of the above. At the
start I'm going to "max out," as we say in the political donation trade,
to all of them. "The trade," of course, is made up of those in
company towns around the country with the financial
wherewithal and the Rolodex to be of interest to anyone in America
running for public office. Some in the trade are
prone to believe that their advice and counsel is valued as highly as their checkbooks.

My reason for backing all of the above does not derive from the lack
of a personal favorite among the four named
candidates. It comes from the naive belief that those members of the
electorate who tend to lean or drift or blink to the left
just enough not to be deemed centrists, might have something to gain
from a vigorous discussion of issues and policies. This
American experiment in democracy, as it was labeled early on, does,
after all, depend on an informed electorate, as was
also stated back then. An informed electorate! If we sold it as a
Born Again Idea, it just might sell in this political climate.

And so let me be among the first in my crowd, the trade, to jump on board.