Oh, THAT nutjob!

We have friends in England who, at times, shake their heads at the American political system. There ought to be room, they argue, for more than just two political parties. European politics, in general, often see three, four, five parties win seats in various parliaments. Why not try the same thing here?

Well, it's the quality of candidates chosen, for one. The American Green Party, for instance, has chosen Cynthia McKinney as their nominee (see this story: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/12/mckinney.green.party/index.html). I knew I recognized her name -- she's the nutter from Georgia, a former U.S. Representative, who through an absolute tizzy fit because a guard at the U.S. Capitol didn't recognize her as she breezed through a security checkpoint. You'd think that a duly elected representative might consider, given the times, that it might be a wise thing to at least SLOW DOWN while passing through a security checkpoint. She didn't and, of course, alleged racial profiling and discrimination and whatnot. She got voted out of office. Now she wants to be president under the Green Party? Honestly, they couldn't pick anyone better for their nominee than some nutjob best known nationally for being a moron at a security checkpoint? Now, maybe I'm being unfair. We've had actor presidents. We've had general presidents. We even had a peanut farmer president who once claimed (this was after the election, mind you) that he'd been attacked by a large swimming rabbit while bobbing in a lake in Georgia. So maybe the gene pool is wide and shallow when it comes to picking presidential contenders.

Ralph Nader ran the most successful third-party run for president (as a Green) ever in 2004, and he got a whopping 3 percent of the vote. One of those votes was mine. He may have the personality of undercarpet mold, but at least he'd done useful things in his life, most notably warn us all that every Ford Pinto ever built was going to EXPLODE and KILL us all, so he's got that going for him. I just can't see myself voting for McKinney. Sorry, Greens. Try better next time.

Is it shallow to reject a candidate based on one incident in her life? Perhaps. But hotheads like her rub a rough spot with me. I don't know that we need someone that confrontational and so prone to umbrage and outrage in the Oval Office. We've had plenty of those already. We need a president like Merkin Muffley (of Dr. Strangelove fame) who was unperturbed even by a Soviet Premier who was drunk on the hotline and when the soviet ambassador and Gen. Turgidson where fighting in the War Room.

So here's a question to the parties in general: Is it too much to ask that y'all rise above the politic slop and actually tell us what you're going to do for the country? Obama, stop leaning to the right. McCain, fix that weenie voice of yours. I'm ready for another Reagan or (F.D.) Roosevelt, just to get some dynamism where it counts.