Take their dollars and promise them change

Barack Obama is the Democrat front-runner. His oratory style is excellent, having honed it on the election trail. Undoubtedly, he has had coaching in style and in content. His approach hits on many important points, particularly inspiring and promising "change" which usually is interpreted as something good by those who see anything at present that is not good. The more that you see that is not good, the more the word "change" resonates with you. But is change always better that what you have now? Change leads to unintended consequences, new problems, and sometimes lack of resolution of the problem you were attempting to solve. As the phrase goes, "No good deed goes unpunished." So, an attempt to do good can lead to really bad things.

Here are the things we really need (in addition to "change")

• Accountability. Whether new or old, we want our government to be accountable to us, the taxpayers. We want to see progress and results. We want objective measures by which we can see progress or the lack thereof.
• Information. We want to know details. That is where the devils are. Broad strokes of rhetoric are dandy for inspiration, but do not get us to the promised land.
• Attentiveness. We want our leaders to care about us. Not just the poor. Not just the rich. Not just the minorities nor the majority, but each and every one of us.
• Moral direction. We want our leaders to lead by example into a new and better sense of morality and ethics. A dignity of America and Americans that all of us can buy into as our national identity and ethos. Something we can teach to our children and grandchildren. Something that will resonate with the old and young, rich and poor. We don't want a leader to worship, for such worship can lead us astray, following the pied piper or demagogue. We want to believe in ourselves, our divine good and our "can do" spirit.

Let's see where the election takes us.