If I had one wish in regard to politics for 2008, it would be the return of the truth. You know how, in the course of everyday relationships, as you go about your business and take care of your business, you can tell in about ten seconds if someone is putting you on or being genuine? Well, let’s just say I haven’t been stroked into submission by any of the candidates now jockeying for position in the battleground states.

Do you remember any time in our history as Americans when those who had ambition to serve in public office were keen on service and responsibility? I think it was a period of time that I studied in High School American History, and it involved names like Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. The candidates pushing and shoving their way to the forefront for the 2008 Presidential Election are not what I would call public servants. I wouldn’t call them statesmen. I wouldn’t call them for dinner.

What I would call them are opportunists — politicians, elite power-hungry scoundrels with thinly veiled lusts for power and position. It doesn’t matter to me which party the candidates are affiliated with; they’re all a bad decision in the booth. It’s not like they’re going to be able to do anything wondrous after President Bush steps down next January. The new President will inherit one of the most inflammatory, dangerous, razor’s edge social, political, and global situations ever conceived by the heart of man.

Let me ask you if you have 100% confidence in any one candidate. If you don’t, and most likely you don’t, how on earth could that one candidate be qualified to hold the highest office in the government of the United States of America?

Since when did we become so dull as a nation? We have people on the campaign trail competing for an office that outshines them considerably. Obama has, what, four years experience as a state senator? Hillary has done what, been married to the President? Huckabee? McCain? When’s the last time you took a good look at their agenda, their platforms, and their eyes, and seen anything that made you want to stand up and cheer? Shouldn’t our President be a person so well-qualified, dynamic, and resolute that we as a nation could unite behind him or her? These candidates make me want to bury my American head in shame to think that they are the best a nation of rebels, freedom fighters, free thinkers, entrepreneurs, and families, can produce to lead our great nation.

You’ve experienced what it feels like when people tell you lies. You can tell when something disingenuous is being said. You know what it sounds like when words are used or not used for a specific purpose, to accomplish an end that, in your gut, conspires against you and your well-being. Do me a favor; think back to those times; remember how it felt. Think of betrayal; think of deception; think of what has happened to the world in the last decade, regardless of who has been sitting behind the desk in the Oval Office. I don’t care what party you’re partial to, please, let’s be sensible. Can we please demand that an honest person, who actually represents normal Americans, rise up and be counted among us?

The candidates currently campaigning are entrenched in politics; they live off trusts and offshore accounts; attend at least one black-tie dinner per week; travel in private jets; aspire to great power; and want, more than anything else, for the world to remember them with great tenderness and fondness after they are gone. As such, they are completely irrelevant.

I want an honest man or woman to stand up and be counted. I would vote for a presidential candidate who is mildly reluctant to hold the office; does not desire power or profit for its own sake; tells the truth at every opportunity; understands what it means to be a statesman; is resolute, unflinching, and who knows that national security is worth everything; knows that our tax system is ridiculously complex and backwards (taxing income rather than consumption); and that our government has become too big to support itself. We need an honest man who understands what’s at stake here.

We stand at the precipice of something great right now as a nation. Who will lead us? Some pasty politician who only understands polls and focus groups and the desolate soulless wasteland of the District of Columbia? Or a ruddy, strong, real, brilliant candidate produced from among us, who is not afraid to get dirty and understands there are consequences for some things? My vote, and I hope yours too, will be for more than talk about change.

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This guest-writer on this post is Chris White...