Republican Convention

I am really enjoying the Republican convention this week. It's very interesting to listen to values they espouse as "American Values."  It's an interesting thought that an entire group of people can agree on values. I find it even more interesting as I listen to NPR unpack their speeches the next day. Mara Liasson (whom I very much admire) pointed out that Ryan's speech discussed how Obama's stimulus didn't save one of the GM plants. However, Liasson indicated that the plant was scheduled to be closed before Obama took office. It's an interesting question.

I love it that there are "fact checkers" who are validating these speeches. If the fact checkers point out that the plant was scheduled to close BEFORE Obama took office but didn't close until a few months AFTER he took office, should Obama be held accountable for not being able to close the plant?  True, he claimed that he could save jobs and keep plants from closing, but does that invalidate Ryan's statement?

Intellectual Laziness

I find it interesting that during an election season, many pundits, candidates and their supporters are charged with intellectual laziness. It's an interesting situation when we are charged with determining who is to lead our country. I think that our values speak louder than our intellect when we are determining such things, and I think that the candidates and their election team like to take advantage of us for the same things.

For example, I was just looking at a democratic website asking Romney to share his tax returns. He already shared his last year returns according to law, so why should more matter? Are his tax returns critical to making a decision about who is going to be a good president?  Personally, I am more curious about what kinds of laws he passed or signed into law in the state of MASSACHUSETTS when he was governor. Why are we not getting more information about that?  Conversely, why are we not hearing about  Obama's policies that he signed into law? What about the ones he requested but didn't get signed because of congress? I am still curious about why he brought us into the war in Afghanistan when we are now seeing soldiers being killed by their "trainees."  Why are we not talking about that? Why are we not talking about closing Guantanimo?

Our founders made sure that the President doesn't have too much power, but we certainly attribute a great deal of power to our president. There are many things that the president can control, but there are a great deal of things that he cannot since the Congress has much to do with what bills get passed, etc. Why are we not asking more questions about how the President can work with Congress? How well did Romney work with the MASSACHUSETTS state legislators? What's Obama's record?

Our values may be getting in the way of making a good decision in this election. I read an article recently in Salon.com that described our fascination with these "side stories" a matter of intellectual laziness. Is it? Can you find some evidence of intellectual laziness in some of the news stories about the upcoming election?