I'm getting depressed about the whole election thing. I'm afraid too many Americans don't have the patience to listen to anything complicated. I heard a quote the other day: "If you have to explain your position, you've already lost the debate." People only want sound-bites. That's why it's so easy to brand someone a flip-flopper. The election will be won by slogans and catch phrases, not by issues.

Eight—or was it twelve?—years ago, Ross Perot did what I thought was a brilliant thing. On 2 or 3 occasions, he bought a full half-hour of network television time—he said it cost him the same as two 1-minute commercials—and explained the economy to people, principally to impress people with the enormity of the national debt. He presented charts and graphs and explained them with great clarity. People (myself included) didn't vote for him because they didn't trust him personally as a leader, but I think he succeeded in impressing people with the fact that the debt was indeed a big problem. Soon afterwards, we had a balanced budget. Now, it's unbalanced again.

I expected to see other candidates follow his campaigning technique, but it didn't happen. Why not? Well, I think I know why not, but it depresses me.