Rodent Regatta

Some political issues never captured my attention as the most important thing that government should be about. Abortion is an example. Clearly, given two (theoretically) identical candidates—something impossible—I might use their respective stances on abortion as a deciding factor. However, long before I get to abortion or gay marriage or some other issues, I’ve made up my mind about most candidates.

With the USA targeted as it is right now by various people and countries, I find security high on my list of issues for testing candidates. Mike Hollihan has written well about last week’s October surprise in Tennessee politics. Political stunts are of little interest to me when we face such stultifyingly complex problems as control of nuclear knowledge, economic polarization and religious extremism.

However, in this one stunt, we get to see our candidates reacting to real, unscripted situations that tell us a great deal about the character of the men and how they respond when decisions must be made alone and on the spot.

In fact, they tell us enough to decide our vote!