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 A republic or a constitutional monarchy?!? 
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We discussed this briefly in class a few weeks back, but it was brought to my attention last weekend again in the oh-so-early discussion about the 2008 Presidential race....

Last Sunday, on ABC's "This Week," George Stephanopolous (sp?) interviewed one of the many 2008 presidential candidates, the former Republican governor of Massachusetts and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Mitt Romney. As I listened, having formed my own political views from my past experiences as we all have, I agreed with some things Governor Romney was saying, and disagreed with others, but I could at least give him credit for being a well-spoken individual who has plenty of charisma and would seem very able to curry favor with voters on these characteristics alone. Then something was introduced that made me extremely wary of Governor Romney: he comes from a political family, one of whose members got very close to the White House at one time in the past. Apparently Governor Romney's father, before being forced to drop out of the race, was the front-runner for the GOP nomination for President in 1968.

I was not around in 1968, and thus I have no memory of this. However, it seems to me that, when it comes to the Federal Government, we keep recycling politicians in who are connected to many of the failures of the past. We consistently reelect Congressmen and Senators for term after term, and the Executive Branch is almost always filled by a familiar face (or name) from the past. And it is not just one political persuasion: on the Democratic side, a member of the Kennedy family has addressed every Democratic National Convention since 1956. On the Republican side, there has only been one leap year since 1952 (the year was 1964) in which the Republican presidential ticket did not contain someone with the last name of Nixon, Dole or Bush. Even when President Clinton was elected in 1992, his Vice President was Albert Gore Jr., son of Albert Gore Sr., the popular former US Senator from Tennessee. And this year we have it again, with Governor Romney on the Republican side and Senator Clinton on the Democratic side.

It seems to me that if we are truly going to change this country's direction, and make our government more representative of the population it represents - truly of, by and for the people - we must make it look less like a constitutional monarchy by putting some new blood in power in Washington.

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Logan McGuire


Sun Feb 25, 2007 5:41 pm
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I am not sure if I totally agree about having new blood in the White House. Jimmy Carter was the Washington outsider who wanted to reestablish the trust in America among the American public. Many Americans voted for him over Jerry Ford because of this reason. We wanted to forget everything about Nixon's Watergate Scandal that we voted Ford out of office.

Carter experienced his own share of troubles with the Iran Hostage Crisis and he also wanted to micro-manage the White House. The question is whether Jimmy Carter really accomplished anything in his four short years being the new blood in Washington.

I know that all of us will research these candidates and come to our own conclusions. Have you heard any of these candidates talk about their education agenda?

I believe that it is important for one to have political experience of some kind. They need to understand the structure of our government and know what is going on in the world realizing the impact of our actions on the world stage.

New blood always does equate new ideas. These candidates must have a plan to deal with all of the issues confronting this country, they also should be thinking about alternative plans as well. I will vote for the candidate who has a grip on the issues.

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Chris McKay

"Our progress as a nation can be no swifter
than our progress in education." -JFK


Sun Feb 25, 2007 10:04 pm
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To me, new blood vs. old blood does not matter. I think whoever can do the best job and who matches your personal beliefs is who you ought to vote for. I'm not going to automatically vote for someone based on how many relatives they've had in Washington at some point in time. I'm sure people didn't vote for George W. Bush ONLY because he was the son of George Bush. After all, daddy didn't win re-election if you recall.

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Lisa Fortenberry


Mon Feb 26, 2007 3:18 pm
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I agree. I do not really care except that we do need some with NEW IDEAS ON HOW TO GOVERN.

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"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." M. Twain


Mon Feb 26, 2007 7:31 pm
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New ideas is certainly a must in today's complex global society. At the same time, however, old blood has the problem of too many special interests thus making it hard to act on what is best for the nation instead of what is best for those that got him or her elected. Then again, many politicians are elected as representatives of his/her constituents which makes the political terrain even more challenging. I do think Logan has made a valid problem with politics... Honestly I'm so sick of th Bush's and Clinton's that name recognition alone is a turnoff.....

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Heath Belcher


Tue Feb 27, 2007 4:39 pm
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