The Start of What I'd Like To Hear From Our Leaders

I don’t have all the answers to all of the problems that confront us in this first decade of the 21^st century. No one does. You will not like all of the things I try to do as president. Some of these things will hurt some of you because every action – your actions, my actions - has costs and consequences. But, I will always try to act in what I see as the best interests of this country and the world.

Determining what are those best interests is not easy. I cannot do it alone. I need your help and the help of everyone in government, whether that government is in a small town in Kansas, at the State House in Boston or in our nation’s capital. We, all of us, are in this together. And we have to band together, especially today when our world is in a phenomenal state of change. We need the talents of all of us to cope with this change. We need the talents of all of us to solve the problems that we are facing today. We need the talents of all of us to minimize the problems the future will bring us.

The world is changing in many ways. The biggest change may be that we are no longer the sole superpower; we have to pay a lot more attention to the other nations of the world. We need to develop other sources of energy. Our climate is changing. The world’s economy is going in the toilet, if it is not already there.

Our stature in the world has changed not only politically but in ways that affect our everyday lives. For example, we spend more per person on health care than any other country, yet we die at a younger age. Our rate of stillborn births is the same as Croatia and Cuba. We have the largest prison population in the world. We lead the world in terms of the percentage of our children who live in poverty. My share - and each of my children’s share and your share - of our country’s national debt is $150,000, yet we spend billion and billions of dollars on weapons, many of which are obsolete by the time they are ready for production. We have some of the leading universities in the world, but our grammar and high school kids no longer have the top scores in tests conducted around the world.

I could go on, but you know we are in very deep water and there is no lifeguard to rescue us. We must save ourselves. And we can begin to do so by practicing American values, by believing once more in our ability to solve problems, by going beyond belief and actually working at understanding and solving problems.

We need to restore America to a three part government – an executive branch, a legislative branch and a judicial branch. I am running for president, not emperor; it is my job to execute, not to legislate and not to judge. Our Congress must return to its constitutional role. It must work for the people of America, not for the Democrat or Republican party. It must execute its power of oversight. Our judges must stop pontificating and return to their role as judges.

I know that things will not change overnight. But you can help this change start and gather momentum. It is you who can light that one little candle that will enable this nation to once more see the path that leads to freedom, justice, liberty and hope for us, for our children and for our children’s children.