The national political scene seems to be proving the old adage, that things are not always what they appear to be.
Supporters of politicians running for president try to use today's communication media for their proposes of bit by bit developing the image of what their future candidate will look like and how he will conduct himself once he's in office.
Yet no one knows what the future brings in relation to problems to be faced, not even the candidate, especially as to how he will conduct himself and as to which policies will be important to him at the time and which policies will be less significant under the circumstances.
Today's conditions are of course, war with a background of economic recession. War and economics the stuff of government.
Each of the two major candidates through their campaigns are trying to prove that he is the wisest of human beings and the only one to deal with these conditions.
Both use their party as the main political base for this, but as we have two parties rather equally split in numbers but not in distribution, each must win the vote of the majority of his own party and many of those who do not strongly associate themselves with party.
During this election process, there's a tendency to confuse country and government. The party in power seeking to regain power combines country and government as one entity. The one out of power, would prove government to be evil, functioning against the interest of the country.
This is a thesis that requires many more words, but in short the party in power would demonstrate that most of what they have done is good, right and and will be proved to be most wise. The party out of power must prove the opposite and criticize government.
However, in so doing, party representatives place themselves in danger of appearing unpatriotic if not treasonous. War heroes become the center of controversy.
On the one side, heroes are sacred and on the other their accomplishments are to be doubted. There remains a strong tendency for returning heroes, as of old, to become the emperors.
The concept of patriotism confuses those who would have less government, ending up defending government while those who would have government carry out many of their proposed policies finding themselves government's strongest critics.
If General Clark were running against Senator McCain, Clark would have to suggest that the experiences of a prisoner of war, no matter how much we admire McCain, do not surpass the experiences of a general when it comes to heading the government.
Today, this discussion appears to have become significant, with that subject being brought up by General Clark, not a candidate for president.
Things are not what they always appear to be, even less so when discussing presidential politics.
