"Hot Air Blows Through St. Petersburg..."

Last evening ten Republican wannabe Commanders-In-Chief took center stage at the Mahaffey auditorium in my hometown, St. Petersburg, Florida. Like the fellow who went to a basketball game and watched instead a hockey game break out, those who had hoped to witness a spirited debate attended a cat fight instead. The end result after two hours of back and forth bickering wasn't so much who won, but who came away less personally and politically scarred.

The real losers in this continuous debacle was once again the American people. It is no wonder that the average American voter is so thoroughly apathetic and disgusted with such pointless spectacles, as they serve no viable substantive interest other than to afford additional fodder for the mass media to report and the political pundits to dissect ad nauseam. Those who otherwise relish such in-close combat are the self-serving entourage of each candidate and the fanatic adherents to narrowly defined agendas. Any attempt to address the myriad of maladies that face our nation with comprehensive policy positions could not be found among these candidates, so busy were each trying to convince the audience that they had performed effectively and admirably previously in their own select spheres of influence. One-up-manship was the rule of the evening, both in trying to categorize themselves as competent and their opposition quite to the contrary.

In my opinion, it was a sad evening in St. Petersburg and an equally sad evening in America. Our nation cries out for leadership that understands and embraces the day-to-day struggles our work-a-day men and women face as they try to stretch their weekly paychecks to keep body, soul and family solvent while our bloated, over-reaching, and inefficient government on all levels reach deeper and deeper into our pockets to underwrite their out-of-control entitlement programs and ill-conceived pork barrel projects. Our representative form of government has been eroded by special interest collectives and political action committees that place personal gain over the benefit of the greater good. We the people are languishing in a leadership vacuum that is being filled not by incompetents, but by old guard politicians that seek power, influence and a more secure place at the trough of the America's tax-supported largess.

When asked, "What would Jesus do?" former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee correctly quipped, "Jesus would have the common sense not to run for political office." Would the majority of the current crop of presidential candidates, on both sides of the political spectrum, follow this sage observation, the future of our country might look considerably brighter than it did last evening in St. Petersburg.