It is amazing to me how in the past week the discussion of electing our new president has shifted from a debate about how we are going to solve a set of enormous challenges to one about how interesting and feisty the new VP nominee from Alaska was in reading a speech full of good one-liners dumping on the Democrats. The Presidency is both about personality, since it is about the person who will serve and the one who will stand in waiting, but it is also about what direction the country wants to turn, particularly in times of crisis where deep problems must be solved and fateful decisions made. I think that those of us in the universities who spend their lives studying the problems and the institutions that must be used to reach solution should try to contribute some more substance to the national discussion. When we chose George HW Bush it was done too much about the silly hat that Michael Dukakis wore when he climbed into the tank and a particular black prisoner that one of his policies released from prison than about education reform, or environment, or anything else that really mattered.

 

Al Gore was attacked for the clothes he wore, Senator Kerry for wind surfing, and there was no serious discussion of the policies and appointments that have severely limited American rights as judges have narrowed civil rights and civil liberties, decided to overrule, the Bush Administration's denial of global warming, and many other issues.

 

If field dressing a moose becomes more relevant to choosing a ticket than having a viable policy on millions of Americans without health care, we are in deep trouble. I hope in the coming weeks to offer a perspective on a critical series of choices before the nation, particularly those that will determine whether we move towards greater social and economic equity or toward deepening polarization.