Frankly; having been out of the loop for a while feels right. There is really little good coming from Washington and the day to day chatter on social media continues to repeat itself. In fact, in catching up with Facebook friends, I noticed a growing number of reposts of stuff from as far back as 2014. Russian meddling raising its ugly head?

A couple of thoughts ahead of the second Democrat Party debates. The results of the first debate clearly demonstrated that that event was not a debate. It follows that the debate next week will not be debate either as the same format will be used. Let’s see how many “got’cha” hand raising questions are laid upon the 20 selected challengers. There will be more selective questions directed at specific candidates designed to make them look bad and with little time to speak to details or present an alternate view. My guess is that nothing good will come from these two shows.

The other thought is that the Democrats will need to be careful to avoid having these debate shows winnow the field down to 3 or 4 candidates ahead of the September debates, where hopefully there will be real back and forth. This concern is based on the fact that none of the 25 or so candidates has caught fire with the American public. From conversations here in the Mid-west, people are really looking for a leader, not just someone who can beat trump.

The farm community will stay with trump unless a candidate shows up with a realistic plan that demonstrates real leadership into the future. The small town folk will stick with trump without a candidate who shines a light on what the future can be. Regardless of the current polls, a Democrat candidate who runs simply as the anti-trump will likely lose in the Mid-west. This is a fate that the Democrat Party must work to avoid.

A start on working toward finding a candidate that will inspire would be to not allow hand raising questions. There should be real debate on health care, not 15 second sound bite opportunities. The Federal budget deficit; will anyone be bold enough to offer up a real solution? Immigration, what should revised immigration law look like? Really, the list goes on. My guess is the debate shows will ask some of these questions but in a way that allows the candidates to answer with their 60 second campaign speech on the topic. We will see if any of these candidates can figure out how to connect.

It feels good to write a little on the current state of affairs and I am looking forward to building more and better commentary in August.

Sjh