By DAVE HAMRICK
Editor-at-large

I've been watching the presidential candidates with increasing boredom, but Boy George may be showing some signs of life.

For the first time in recent memory, for instance, a Republican candidate has come up with a good, ringing-sound-bite answer to that ridiculous “risky tax scheme” drum beat that the president — and now the president of vice — keeps parroting.

“I'll tell you what's risky,” George W. Bush declared in a speech I caught on CNN. “Leaving surplus tax funds in Washington, D.C. — that's what's risky.”

That's a keeper, W. Come up with a few more of those and you'll annihilate Gore in the debates.

You may be picking up on the subtle suggestion in the above paragraphs that I think it's going to be Gore versus Bush. That's very astute of you.

Super Tuesday was yesterday, but the results weren't known until after our paper goes to press. By the time you read this, I may be eating my words, but I really think it's about over for McCain and Bradley, though I hope they'll stick it out for the sake of keeping the debate going.

And speaking of debate, let's hope any debates this year include all the candidates, whether in a party primary or in the General Election.

Libertarians and candidates of other nontraditional parties should be included, not necessarily for fairness' sake, but simply for the additional point of view.

I don't necessarily agree with some third party pundits that Republicans and Democrats are cut from the same cloth, but certainly the two mainstream parties have couched the debate in the same terms for decades. Why not throw in some people who will shake up the norm and challenge us all to think outside the box?

We have way too little debate in this country, and way too much poll-taking. I think pollsters purposely seek out MTV junkies who wouldn't know an income tax from an excise tax to skew those polls.

I don't think anyone should be allowed to be polled — or to vote, for that matter — unless that person can answer a few simple questions about the issues.

Pollster: I'd like to ask your opinion on some issues, but first I have to test your knowledge on those issues.

MTV-head: I'm down.

Pollster: I'm going to ask whether you think President Clinton should be indicted, but first, what can you tell me about the charges against him?

MTV-head: He's accused of having sex in the White House, right? That's a misdemeanor, right? The more you miss the meaner you get?

Pollster: Er, no. He's charged with lying under oath and using the power of his office to intimidate witnesses.

MTV-head: Well, I think that's his private life and those Republicans should leave him alone.

Pollster: I'd like to ask if you favor a middle class tax cut, but first, can you tell me what segment of the population pays the largest percentage of the nation's taxes: lower class, middle class or upper class?

MTV-head: Lower class, man. They put everything on the backs of the poor.

Pollster: Sorry. The top 10 percent of income earners pay almost 60 percent of the taxes. The top 50 percent of incomes are tapped for over 95 percent of the taxes. The middle income folks pay the rest. The poor don't pay any income tax at all, and very little in other taxes, such as sales taxes.

Let's face it. People are getting more and more ignorant, and it's reaching the point at which we may have to admit that the concept of self government just isn't going to work for the long haul.

As soon as people found out they could use the election system to vote benefits to themselves, they started thinking of the government as provider and stopped relying on their own energy, drive and ideas.

Self government requires that we all take responsibility for ourselves and for supervising our government.

We're asleep at the switch, and if we don't wake up, soon the train will have jumped the tracks and it'll be too late.

All of which is simply to say that we need more debate. The media and the name candidates shoulder out the alternative groups because they want to simplify the debate.

If we're not careful, we're going to simplify our freedoms right out of existence.

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