Current location:	Home, but not for long...
Current mood:	pleased
Current music:	Hotel California by Bernard Cade

Just had to say...
With the election over, CNN is asking what sort of President we each believe we might be.

http://www.cnn.com/exchange/ireports/topics/forms/election/if.president.html

Here's what I told them:

"Were I to be elected to serve this country in the White House, I would certainly make strides away from the present administration's "If you're not with us, you're against us" attitude. This sort of stance is not diplomacy and through its presentation to the United Nations, I feel that much of the good will abroad for America was squandered almost immediately after Sept. 11, 2001.

At home, I would make every effort to demonstrate the root causes of the issues facing this country and to show Americans how each policy was designed to address those causes rather than merely fighting symptoms (while talking down to citizens). Immigration would be the best example here. The real issue is not that so many Mexicans are crossing the border but, rather, what conditions are they fleeing? A true solution is not a wall on the border but cooperation with Mexico to address those conditions.

There also seems to have been a loss of understanding (on the part of American leaders) that our legal system is based on precident. Abortion is the case in point here. Legal death is synonymous with brain death. Consistency would indicate that legal life begins when brainwaves can be detected.

Strangely enough, during the 2004 Presidential race, I received one of the 11 write-in votes in Montana. This is a state I have neither visited nor campaigned in. I do frequently imagine what sort of President I might make (not based on the strength of this one vote, of course) or at least how my interview on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart would go.

Thanks for reading.

Thom Truelove"
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And now, off to Italy - for about two weeks - with my lovely wife. We are treating this as a second honeymoon after 14 years (and 1.5 months) of marriage.