The last (but unfortunately not the final) "debate" among Republican
presidential candidates aired Sunday at 10:30 a.m. EST in the apparent hope
that no one would watch. Few did. But among those who watched, or who read
the transcript, ideology once again seemed to take precedence over something
the voters might consider of greater importance in next year's election.
That something is competence.
While Sen. Sam Brownback and Gov. Mitt Romney sparred over who was pro-life
first (the Republican version of the Democrats' battle between Barack Obama
and Hillary Clinton over who was first to oppose the war), I suspect most
people are more interested in which candidate is best equipped to run the
government.
The Washington Post reported that the Pentagon has lost about 190,000 AK-47
assault rifles and pistols it had given to Iraqi security forces in 2004 and
2005. The Government Accountability Office found that the distribution of
weapons was "haphazard and rushed" and established procedures were not
followed. The head of security training during the period the arms
disappeared was Gen. David Petraeus, who will report to President Bush next
month on the progress of the surge.
Perhaps the Pentagon should have affixed bar codes to the weapons. Like a
book or a box of cereal we buy at the supermarket, they would have been
easier to track. As it is, more of our tax dollars have gone down the hole
with no hope of a rebate and some of the weapons have probably fallen into
the hands of insurgents who will surely use them to shoot Americans.
How would the presidential candidates address this? How would they propose
making this broken system work more effectively?
What about education? We pour increasing amounts of time, attention and
money into giving children, especially underprivileged children, a chance to
succeed. Do the candidates really believe the problem is not enough money,
or is it too much money and not enough choice as to which school - public or
private - best serves the needs of children? Ending the education monopoly
would help those languishing in substandard schools. Are the candidates -
especially Democrats - so beholden to the teachers unions that they care
more about winning their approval than they do about educating children? The
answer for Democrats is "yes." Why don't the overpaid
interrogators/moderators ask the question this way?