Republican hopefuls? None of the above!

The big splash today is Mitt Romney's hands down win in Arizona and slim victory in Michigan. America's right has taken another step in selecting a candidate to run against Obama.

Oddly, when the republican candidates were first introduced, their backers believed any one of them could beat O. What appeared to be a blue ribbon lineup slowly faded in luster with each succeeding debate. Now, the backers fear that none of the remaining four candidates, including Romney, could defeat Obama. We have learned too much about these candidates and in the process have come to dislike them for two reasons.

First, because of their faults which came to light as a result of so called negative advertisements issued by fellow competitors and their backers. Second, because the candidates themselves issued negative and half-truth and false ads against their fellow candidates. The public has begun to dislike and distrust both the target and thedesigner of the negative ads. In the process, the candidates have shamelessly indulged in what has been called a dogfight, fratricide, political suicide and downright mean spiritedness in pursuit of their political ambitions. One might ask, is it worth it?

The primary system has generated a group of liars, spinners, frauds, ego maniacs and unethical office seekers who systematically danced around a few issues, exposed extreme ignorance of other issues and generally fed the public hollow phrases spiced with poison darts aimed at their competitors. It is impossible for me to respect any of them including Mitt Romney who was my choice from the beginning and who has become the best player on a seriously losing team. I seriously doubt his ability to beat Obama.

To hear these candidates dedicating themselves and America to democracy and the principles of our founding fathers and then unscrupulously making promises they can never fulfill is a castigating indictment of themselves and their followers. They frequently stated during the debates that on the first day in office as President, they would repeal this and initiate that and reform something else could only be described as Obamaesque. And we all know how we wereseduced in by O's naive and preposterous and false promises when he campaigned for President.

There is a modicum of outrage among the public over these types of behavior on the part of our political aspirants, but not enough to form a critical mass. And probably for the better. But an organized, systematic and penetrating effort to document areas of social dissatisfaction could be damaging to our stability.

The alliance between political leaders, captains of commerce and industry and ranking members of the armed forces has not been sufficiently exposed. The vast amount of inefficiency and red tape and bureaucratic insanity prevailing in an expanding government needs to be made public along withresulting economic and financial implications. Corruption in Washington and our state and local government institutions is out of control, but not to the point where the public is irate. The enormous amount of money spent by candidates and their backers on political campaigning should be included in this expose to the American public along with examples such as how it compares to an average annual salary.

The abject failure of politicians to:

deal with immigration from our southern borders

pursue tort and tax reform

expose banking and finance people responsible for the housing mortgage scandals

control public spending

financially facilitate access to higher education

come up with a sane and doable education policy, andto

formulate an energy policy, plan and funding liberating us from dependence on foreign oil. 

There is also the entire issue of foreign policy, An issue that few of the candidates, including Obama, seem to grasp. How can America be the leader of the free world when we don't understand it? We are culturally challenged, perhaps because we lack one. It is time for us to know and internalize the significance of other cultures and why members of those cultures are so allegiant to them and to admit that such allegiance is a positive attribute. Above all, we need to stop trying to recreate the world in the image and likeness of the USA.

No wonder nobody likes us, we are behaving like a group of candidates running for public office.