Are you serious?
Are you crazy?
- I observe that anyone who declares his/her candidacy for President is not quite right in the head. I am no crazier than any other candidate and somewhat saner than many.
You've never run for, let alone held, any elective office.
You've never served in government at any level.
Does this lack of experience hinder your candidacy?
- On the one hand, yes, of course it does. My opponents will almost certainly make a point of this 'lack of experience' in attacking my candidacy. Furthermore, I have no name recognition and no organization - political or otherwise - on which to build.
- On the other hand, a case can be made that experience is over-rated. I note that VP Cheney, SecDef Rumsfeld, and Deputy SecDef Wolfowitz had over 100 years of government experience between them, yet still managed to take this country into a disastrous and illegitimate pre-emptive "war of choice" with Iraq.
- Judgment and character matter. Not knowing the practical limits of politics just might make it possible for me to achieve what seasoned political veterans would never even attempt; and unlike seasoned political veterans, I do not regard politics as a game, but as the very serious matter of governance.
How do you view the role of the President?
- The Framers of our Constitution established the Legislative branch first, in Article I of the Constitution. Then they got around to establishing the Executive branch; and when they did, the bulk of the discussion focused on the mechanism for electing the President, not on his duties. In fact, the Constitution grants the President very little direct power. Recall, the Framers were mistrustful of a powerful Executive, having only recently escaped the tyranny of Britain's George III.
- The President governs by articulating a clear, coherent vision for the country, and working with Congress and others to implement policies consistent with that vision. By choosing competent advisors, by and with the "advice and consent of the Senate," he or she strives to implement policies in pusuit of that vision.
Would you govern in a bipartisan spirit?
- Bipartisanship is a means to an end, not an end in and of itself.
Why your focus on the Preamble?
- Organizations - businesses, theater companies, charities - all have a succinct 'mission statement' that articulates just what the organization is all about. For example:
- American Red Cross: "The American Red Cross prevents and alleviates human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors."
- Intel: "Delight our customers, employees, and shareholders by relentlessly delivering the platform and technology advancements that become essntial to the way we work and live."
- Specific policies and objectives may change over time, but all policies and objectives are ultimately linked to the mission of the organization, and designed to further that mission.
- In searching for America's mission, we don't have to look very far - the Framers did all the heavy lifting. America's mission is succinctly articulated in the Preamble to the U.S. Consitution. This is what we're about, and is the ideal towards which we are striving.
That's all well and good, but what specific policies would you pursue as President?
- I will be devoting a good deal of time over the next several months to developing the policy specifics on which I intend to run.
What challenges do you see facing you - or any Democratic candidate - in the 2016 general election?
- Will Rogers said it best:
- "I am not a member of any organized party - I am a Democrat."
- I believe that the Democratic Party has the better story to tell, the better solutions to propose to our pressing problems, but we have failed to effectively organize around a coherent narrative. We have failed to effectively communicate the story and the solutions. We are lousy salesmen.
- We have allowed ourselves to be sucked into mindless debates on the deficit at a time when 1) we are borrowing money at all-time low interest rates, and 2) basic economic theory suggests that government spending is the way out of our current demand-driven recession.
- We don't laugh out loud when anyone mentions the miracle of the "self-regulating free-market". Even Alan Greenspan came to realize the absurdity of the basic premise of market self-regulation:
- "... that enlightened self interest of owners and managers of financial institutions would lead them to maintain a sufficient buffer against insolvency by actively monitoring and managing their firms' capital and risk positions. When in the summer of 2007 that premise failed, I was deeply dismayed."[Alan Greenspan, Economic Club of New York, February 17, 2009]
- We have mislabeled health insurance reform as healthcare reform. As a result, the U.S. is still the only developed country in the world without some form of universal health coverage.
- We disdain sloganeering as demagoguery - failing to recognize that effective framing to tell our story is critical to political success and effective governance.
