ELECTIONS ARE A DISTRACTION. Necessary to a democracy, but a distraction nevertheless. At least, that has been the case in America in recent months. Instead of debating important questions, such as how to extricate the nation from Iraq without leaving chaos in our wake, or how to finance the entitlements of Baby Boomers, the candidates focused on their opponents attendance at a Playboy Club, use of racy language when writing a novel and failure to obtain a fishing license many years ago, and gay escapades (Florida).
So say one bunch of pundits. Another takes a kinder view of the election process, and pronounces them a decision by serious voters that the Bush administration has gotten its comeuppance for its combination of colossal incompetence in Iraq and New Orleans with a profligacy that would turn Lyndon Johnson green with envy. Elections are a tool for turning the rascals out and Americans have shown they now how and when to wield that tool.
