I apologize if I've offended anyone with my comments on this subject. My comments were not intended to criticize or belittle anyone here.

But am I disappointed and frustrated by the deterioration of our country in so many ways? Yes, I am. Is it all one man's fault? Decidedly not. Is it the fault of the Congress plus members of the executive branch? An argument could be made that they all share a lot of the responsibility. But the manner in which our country's economy, reputation, military strength and influence has been degraded can probably be blamed on our elected representatives as well as ourselves. Somehow we all have permitted our government to slide into a political quagmire, driven more by the self-interest of those elected and the special interests who pay to assure their own interests will be served.

Going forward I think we need to pay greater attention to what our elected leaders are doing or not doing that will make our current situation better and hopefully not worse. The situation in Georgia seems to demonstrate how little we all know about what's going on over there (myself included). What's frustrating is how some of our leaders seem to have taken actions for seemingly political or idealogical reasons, either ignoring or failing to work with those we might call friends and allies in an attempt to resolve the problem. Do we think people should be killing each other and destroying property for inexplicable reasons? Of course not. Have our leaders reacted simply because we're trying to defend and support a fragile democracy in Georgia? Maybe. Should we be asking why Georgia's neighbors don't seem to be interested enough to become involved? I think so. Should we be attempting to forge a solution to the Georgia problem with statesmanship rather than barging in and trying to apply influence which we clearly don't have? I think so.

So if my frustration with our current political leaders shows thru in my post, I again apologize. Do I think that many changes in our political leadership is critically needed? Yes I do. Fortunately, it seems that we have two pretty good candidates for President. I wish I could say the same for all the members of Congress that are running for re-election.

Going forward I'll try to focus only on the facts that seem to be important in making our decisions on who should represent us. And I'll definitely avoid even mentioning the current administration. There is obviously little to be gained by somehow trying to create new criticisms and it doesn't make anyone feel any better anyway.

It might be a good idea for those that have the time to watch the in-depth interviews with both Senators McCain and Obama on CNN tomorrow night. My hope is that by listening to them both for a couple of hours we'll find out a lot more than spending any time listening or reacting to the sound bites and ads being created by their political advisors.

Winston Churchill identified the current political situation in the U.S. quite well almost 50 years ago when he said, "A politician thinks about the next elections - the statesman thinks about the next generations."