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I'm a great believer that American business influences how our government is run. A fantastic scenario has me watching a contingent of businessmen visiting the Oval Office the day after inauguration and telling the president exactly what he will do and will not do during his term. They make it clear if he does not follow their orders, he will not see a second term and his party will not be successful in Congress. I am glad it is a fantasy. It is, isn't it?

Truth or fantasy, it is my opinion that real change after the 2008 election will not come. First, what changes are we talking about? I have yet to hear any of the three candidates explain how they will change whatever they are going to change. Obama, Clinton and McCain give us lists of what they would change. For example take Obama's list of changes he will bring about in the U.S economy:

* Provide Middle Class Americans Tax Relief
* Trade
* Technology, Innovation and Creating Jobs
* Labor
* Protect Homeownership and Crack Down on Mortgage Fraud
* Address Predatory Credit Card Practices
* Reform Bankruptcy Laws
* Work/Family Balance

In each explanation Obama outlines the problem, says he will bring about change, but he does not say HOW he will effect the change. On protecting home ownership and cracking down on mortgage fraud, he will create a ten percent universal mortgage credit to give tax relief to homeowners who do not itemize. How, Senator, are you going to do this? Or how are you going to mandate accurate loan disclosure without a law, and where does that law come from? Congress? Are you cozy enough with Congress to get that job done?

These and other changes are outlined my Obama, and they sound really wonderful. But, they're campaign rhetoric, created to illicit applause. Come on, people. Get real: a president is, or should be, bound by certain powers; he's not a diviner with a magic wand.

Clinton does the same thing. Visit her website and you'll find a list of her proposed changes but no how-to's. She says she'll bring the troops home right away. No she won't. Oh, she would have the power to do so as Commander-in-Chief, but get real, again. It may take years to move all the troops, equipment, etc., from Iraq and Afghanistan;we're still moving stuff from Desert Storm.

Small changes may take place. We may not have a dictator for a president, as we do now, and we may have a president who is more intelligent. But, I do not think the ground will shift. After all, whoever is elected will be looking for a second term and mistakes made in the first could sink chances for that second go around. Politics still prevails.

Second, and finally, once inside the Beltway, the game is played according to very strict rules, whether influenced by big business or whoever. The stresses and pressures brought upon elected officials, including the president, are unimaginable to us who have never experienced them. It takes a very special person to hold himself/herself together and function as a human being. Yes, we, the American people, want change, but the change we're looking for may be the person we elect. Is he/she capable of meeting the challenges of the office and continue to be human? Hope so.

Learn more about this author, Frederick Fuller.
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