Campaign 2008: What about ideas?

The fundamental differences between the candidates for president in 2008 themselves are very real and very important to understand.

But by favoring YouTube debates and 30-second answers to complicated questions involving topics such as Iran's nuclear weapons program, the respective candidates and their campaign staffers have made the search for real solutions to real problems increasingly more convoluted and insincere.

They're playing to the lowest common denominator, and we're letting them.

Both sides of the political aisle are guilty of pandering, posturing, and proselytizing to be sure, but does that really mean all ideas held, and all policies proposed, are equal in merit and practicality?

What this nation and her people need to rediscover isn't necessarily that "Old Clinton Magic" of the '90s or the "Glory Days" of Reagan's Revolution in the '80s, but a reinvigorated pursuit of real solutions, an appreciation and understanding of objective economic realities and a renewed sense of the republican (small "r") ideal that personal responsibility and civic duty are compatible and necessary prerequisites for a healthy America.

In short: We need to rediscover ideas.

Robby Moeller

Arlington Heights