2008 Presidential Candidates

I usually rant about policies rather than people on this blog but I am going to make a brief exception today. In looking at the qualifications of the candidates from both parties, there is one that stands out as having a wide variety of offices and experiences that puts him head and shoulders above the rest. Even if you don't agree with his policies, you have to respect his expertise. And the fact that he is a moderate, with a reasonable approach to the issues, is a huge bonus.

Who is this rare individual? Bill Richardson. He has been in Congress so he knows how to work legislation. He was Secretary of Energy, so he understands one of the most influential domains in geopolitics, economics and the environment. He was US Ambassador to the UN, so he understands foreign policy and diplomacy. And now he is Governor, so he has experience as a political chief executive. The fact that he is also a Jumbo (graduate of Tufts University) is just icing on the cake (disclosure, that is where I went to school as well).

Democracy of Fools

Sorry I have been gone for several weeks, but I was swamped writing papers for the HFES conference. Anyway, I am back.

Thanks to Bryan Caplan for this post on his econlog blog. He reports (and links to evidence) that the main premise of his research is that "democracies adopt bad policies because most people are irrationally committed to systematically mistaken economic (and other) beliefs, and politicians have to heed public opinion to get elected." I am not at all surprised. What we need to do is elect politicians based on their core values rather than specific policies and then reward them when they surround themselves with brilliant experts from all perspectives to argue the positives and negatives of different policy choices and then the politician weighs these and picks the (hopefully) best one.

How can we make this happen?