What I Learned In College

Any comedian worth his/her salt can make a crack about the $700 Billion bail out, so I am not going there. But it reminded me of a very important fact that I often forget:
Don't ever, ever vote for the candidate, in a political race, that says "I am the new one, not a political insider, and I have no experience-we just need fresh people."

Ugh! New ideas are one thing but does anybody realize the breadth of topics a politician deals with? They all make comments about Health Care, Prisons, and Schools. I call those topics "The Big Three". Very Creative. But some of the other topics a politician of any level (City, State, or Federal) may have to deal with, but are not limited too, include:
Farming-fruit, seed, animal, nursery stock
Land Use Issues-zoning, parks, developement
Environmental-pollution, recycling, parks (see also Land Use Issues), water quality
Public Health-disease control, sewage, water quality (see also Environmental)
Health Care-services for the elderly, disabled
Social Services-services for the unemployed, homeless, children,
Financial-taxes, fees
Public Safety-prisons, criminals, disease control (see also Public Health)
Miscellaneous-trading, job retention, tourism, popultion growth, roads

Those are just the issues I can think of in my sleep-dprived, new baby at home state I know there are a lot of things I know I forgot, and Political Science was my minor in college. The truth is, as much as we may hate to admit it, Government is complicated and it requires the people running it to know a lot. (It also means the voters should know who they are voting for, and therfore the issues, but that is another blog.) So when I vote, I always look at all the candidates, regardless of party affliation, but to the candidate who's claim is no experience but lots of ideas, forget it. And as my current representatives grapple with these huge financial issues, I am again reminded that experience and knowledge will go along way in finding a solution.