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Though I live in a perfect spot for sound-bite photo opportunities, I've yet to see any presidential candidates, and Colorado's first presidential primary is coming soon.
Maybe we won't have one, though. For all I know, Natalie Meyer has refused to allow any candidates on the ballot; our secretary of state is quite picky about such matters.
But if I do get to vote in the Republican primary, I'll vote for Pat Buchanan.
Not because I agree with a tenth of his platform, but because he has resurrected a noble tradition. Buchanan writes his own speeches. He utters his own thoughts, not those of his hired writers.
Granted, the more that people hire writers, the more money I am likely to make. But I must cast self-interest aside, and consider the good of the entire nation. Look at the record.
The first White House speechwriter, one Judson Welliver,
went on the payroll as literary executive secretary
during the reign of Warren Harding. Since then, we've had
Teapot Dome, Yalta, the Bay of Pigs, Vietnam, Watergate,
Iranamok, the S&L bailout, the HUD rip-off -- a host of
disasters and scandals.
Before speechwriters, our presidents were men like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln. After speechwriters: Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan and Bush.
I can rest my case there (although I note that my father-in-law used the same evidence to support his argument that women should not be allowed to vote), but I also want to propose an improvement.
As it is, we have presidents who stand before the cameras and deliver lines that someone else wrote. That's what actors do for a living, and it explains Ronald Reagan's success at gaining public office.
We should reverse that. The president would have to write his own speeches, but he could hire someone else to deliver them.
This would be no greater fraud than what we endure now, and it would open the political process to many people who might be quite capable of leading the nation, but who are frozen out now because they don't come across well on TV -- their voices don't resonate, or they're not telegenic.
This is not unprecedented. One of our greatest presidents was a terrible public speaker. When it was time for the State of the Union address, he sent a manuscript to Congress, where a clerk read it aloud.
Who wouldn't prefer a reedy-voiced and gangly Thomas Jefferson (who cut taxes and reduced the federal deficit) to any of the blow-dried baritone crew running now? Until then, I figure a vote for Buchanan is one way to say you want a president who does his own thinking.
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