Politicians shouldn't be blamed for everything wrong in the country, only about half of it. Of course, we truly do have some disreputable, crooked, lousy sonsofbitches in Congress who'd cheat their own mother out of fifty bucks if they thought they could.

There are elected representatives, however, who are well-meaning, and responding to stimuli, though not always in the best interest of the country.

A person who changes his mind based on the presentation of new evidence is supposedly "open-minded." However, if you change position and you're an elected official, it sets you up for charges of flip-flopping from opponents, constituents and the media. All the change of mind might have meant, is that you have the ability and desire to learn.

For some reason, the news media want to promote the idea that near-infallibility bordering on the mystic is a necessary requirement to hold high office. They also drop sly hints that only a genius can serve. A person of reputed average intelligence is derided, when the fact is, it's so-called average people who make this country work. Common sense and honesty are clearly more important attributes than mere intelligence.

I knew a guy with a 160 IQ who sucked his thumb and couldn't even tie his own shoes.

The destructive expansion of overkill media coverage into a sensation-loving kind of new Hollywood may provide good-paying jobs for all those talking heads, but because of it, politicians are under more pressure than ever to make neutral, ridiculous or evasive statements, fueling public mistrust.

"It depends on how you define the word.....is!"

You don't want your own words coming back to haunt you if you're proven wrong.

"Read my lips!"

Political parties and their rigid codes also tend to inhibit candor and open-mindedness. If you're a conservative and wish to be elected, you better please religious fanatics, gun-nut lobbies, one-world-order bank czars, industrial exploiters of cheap labor in third world nations, hate groups and others, by taking a weak or nonexistent position against their agendas, even though you know them to be wrong. You don't want Nazis publicly supporting your candidacy, but secretly, you don't want them voting against you either.

You want to give the impression you want no government control over anything, except a woman's body (anti-abortion laws).

Liberals, on the other hand, support government control of everything, except a woman's body. The liberal constituency to be stroked includes women who believe men should disappear from the earth, wacko environmentalists who believe people should disappear, assorted lunatics, alleged intellectuals, Marxists, losers and whiners (many of them foreign), who want and feel entitled to the money that you currently have in your wallet.

The balancing high-wire act necessary to hold office, plus the cost in dollars, attracts professional liars and self-deceivers, the unscrupulous and the slick.