Simple Questions

I'll begin by saying David Sanger writes in the New York Times today, "In every presidency, there comes a moment when the clear-cut visions and simple declarations of a political campaign run headlong into the reality of how the world works." Well, isn't that the truth.

But I think it goes beyond that. Campaigns are a time when every problem does seem to have a simple answer. But lately it's not the simple answers that bother me, it's that nobody ever raises even the simple questions anymore.

Can you think of anything that anybody said during the last general election that had any relevance to the problems that have confronted this president? Was foreign policy ever mentioned? Well, maybe for 30 seconds.

Pollsters tell the candidates the voters are not interested, and the candidates are happy to oblige. It gives them more time to raise money, which is the only real campaign issue anymore.

Then we get surprised by a terrorist attack, or the Middle East blows up, or the Balkans shake, or Iran invades Kuwait -- or Iraq, I should say, invades Kuwait, and we go to war, or then Iran captures our diplomats, and the Arabs cut off the oil.

These are the problems that American presidents have been dealing with for the last 30 years, but they're the things we never hear about in our campaigns. It's hard to believe, isn't it?