Terry Cowgill

Unity Ticket: Sam & Mario

April 28, 2007 on 1:42 pm | In Media, National |

Two very interesting (if idealistic) pieces today on the 2008 presidential race. And both have slightly local angles.

Mario Cuomo (where has he been the last dozen or so years?) argues in the LA Times that his fellow Dems will need to say what they are for — not just what they are against — if they want to hold on to Congress and retake the White House. Agree wholeheartedly, Mario.

Then he begs the candidates and the news media to elevate the debate beyond 30-second sound bytes and allow for thoughtful responses to complex issues. Agree again, but it will never happen, so even raising the subject is of dubious usefulness.

As the shallow format of the recent Democratic presidential candidates’ debate demonstrated, the American people have short attention spans and they are bound to get shorter with each successive generation.

I myself am a political junkie but I’m not sure how long even I could last listening to a half-hour Hillary lecture on education policy or Dennis Kucinich extoling the virtues a carbon tax.

Who knows? Maybe I’m part of the problem. Detailed policy positions are available on the candidates’ websites for those brave enough to wade through the endless verbiage.

Here’s the problem: if the emphasis in the debates and on campaign commercials were placed on meaty answers and thoughtful responses, even fewer people would pay attention, probably resulting in even lower turnout in the election. Would that be a good thing?

Well, maybe it would: at least you would have a more informed body of voters deciding the election. On second thought, maybe you stumbled on to something Mario. Come back to Albany. We could use your wisdom again, eh?

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The second piece is by Newsweek’s Eleanor Clift. She talks to Cornwall’s own Sam Waterston — a.k.a. Jack McCoy on Law & Order. Sam is pushing the idea of a third-party unity campaign in 2008.

Again, I agree in principal and have ever since I cast a presidential vote for John Anderson in 1980. However, in practice I just don’t see it happening — not in a serious way that will threaten the two-party stranglehold on national politics anyway.

The American people talk a good game about third parties, but with the exception of a handful of states (New York among them) that have a multi-party tradition, it never happens. I know, this is partly because the two parties wrote the very election laws that make it hard for outsiders to compete.

But I talk to a lot of rank-and-file citizens about politics and when I broach the subject of a viable national third party, I see shoulders shrugging and hear enough sighs to blow up an inner tube.

Nice try, Sam. Perhaps you could join Mario and play roles in Unity 2008. Sam as Lincoln (how many times has he played honest Abe?) and Mario as Hamlet-on-the-Hudson (how long did it take him to decide not to run for the White House in ’92?).