Dream Ticket for 2008

Main Entry: non·par·ti·san
Pronunciation: \'nän-'pär-t?-z?n, -s?n\
Function: adjective
Date: 1885
: not partisan; especially : free from party affiliation, bias, or designation (nonpartisan ballot) (a nonpartisan board)

*GOP => Grand Old Party => Republicans
*DFL => The Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) is a major political party in the US state of Minnesota. It was created on April 15, 1944 when the Minnesota Democratic Party and Farmer-Labor Party merged. Hubert Humphrey was instrumental in this merger. The party is affiliated with the national Democratic Party. The nickname "DFLers" is often used in Minnesota by both members and non-members of the party as an alternative to "Democrats".

Preface: I have had many dreams, but years ago the election process generated a particular dream that I have let one of my recent Muses expose to the world. And now that it is exposed to the light of examination by one and all, feel free to jump right in with your viewpoint whatever it may be. Maybe one of you will be another budding Dr. Freud and cure me of all my heretical dreams.

What I am about to expose to you may not prevent another Nixon/Agnew debacle. But it might prevent me from having nightmare dreams before and after the presidential election. My wife, Lois, and I had been living in Maryland for awhile when Agnew was governor. For two years, the Washington Post published articles about Agnew and money disappearing from the state treasury. Two years in a row a million dollars was mysteriously lost each year that could not be accounted for. We could not believe that the voters were unaware of the Agnew graft allegations. However, when the voters elected Nixon/Agnew, Lois and I knew that we were headed for disaster. Thank God, we did not vote for that fiasco; but can we prevent it from happening again?

To start with, I have been voting nonpartisan all my life. And, yes, I could not vote in the primaries unless I lived in a state that allowed nonpartisan voters to vote in the primaries. Here is my dream solution to our voting system. I dream of having the top dog from each party to run as a team against all other candidates. i.e. The top Democrat and the top Republican would form a Presidential and Vice Presidential ticket. Which would be which?

This is the first question that comes to me in my dream. Let the Presidential candidate be the first to win their party's nomination or get the most votes or some such criteria such as most experience in congress. Under these dream criteria, I propose that John McCain and Barack Obama should be the top Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates, respectively. And, best of all my dream criteria, at the end of eight years, if they are still in office, let the Vice President become the Presidential candidate with the top candidate from the opposite party becoming the Vice Presidential candidate for the next election.

In my dream, the senators and representatives would not only have more reasons to work together with the President and Vice President, but they would no longer have to deny how much alike they already are. I do not believe, for instance, that our veterans have been or will be treated any differently under one party or another. The following old quote stills holds more than a grain of truth:

"I Have A Dream" ticket for 2008.