>>>>>>It works differently because your nation has a different backup and makeup and history. That does not make ours wrong for us just as it would be silly for me to pass jingoistic judgement on what works for The Netherlands, wouldn't it?
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>>>>>>You guys have 5 or 6 major parties jockeying for position. Nothing gets done without a coalition. Therefore, I would expect there to be a surfeit in mud-clinging because no one knows who they will need to cooperate with next.
>>>>>
>>>>>Oh, don't get me started on how you have to be a business millionaire, or "old money" in the US in order to be the president, or even governor. This means that the best brains MY be kept down in the lowest echelons because they can't afford to run.
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>>>>I'm more than happy to get you started on that point. Bill Clinton sure didn't grow up with a silver spoon in his mouth. Nor did Harry Truman, whose father owned a successful storefront clothing business in Kansas City. Jimmy Carter. Ronald Reagan. Richard Nixon. Gerald Ford came from some money, nothing spectacular. Dwight Eisenhower grew up in Kansas and made his own reputation as a soldier. Other than JFK and the Bushes you have to go back 70 years to find a U.S. President who was to the manor born.
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>>>I didn't say they were all "old money"; I said "... you have to be a business millionaire or ..." or did that part of the sentence escape you? IOW you have to have "made it" before you can be president or govenor - it seems like the US populace will not repect you unless you are. I think it's more important for a guy to have a keen interest in politics (albeit a lawyer or doctor something in civvy street beforehand) and rise through the ranks than to say "hmmmm, now I'm so big - I think I'll hit the hustings" Let me see now: Arnie, Clint, Ronald, (Sonny Bono :-)
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>>>Jimmy Carter, btw, was a peanut millionaire, wasn't he? Now you have gone back 50 or so years in your examples, and I'm sure it wasn't always the case. OTOH, wasn't Washington a slave-owning landed gentleman before he entered politics?
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>>Are you suggesting we elect complete nonentities, people with no record of achievement?
>
>Well, that was Robert Heinlein's suggestion. Somebody who doesn't really want the job, has no interest in power, will do what needs doing while in office, and then run from, instead of for, re-election.


If you replied to the part at the end you were replying to Terry. My second case of mistaken identity in a week? I must be turning generic!