Candidates shifting focus to shifting focus

With all the talk about how they can make change better than their opponents, I can’t help wondering whether Hillary, Rudy and their other podium pals are running for president of the United States or for night clerk at a 7-Eleven.
Maybe George W. Bush has made a few missteps in the last seven years, but whose fault is that? After all, almost half of us voted for him.
Now the Bush Era is winding down and the president has gone to seek his legacy by bringing the full force of his diplomatic skills to a feud dating back to David and Goliath which none of his predecessors could fix. You go, boy!
No doubt, in the spring of aught-nine, while we all enjoy our wine and cheese while discussing the latest selection from Vice President Winfrey’s book club, we can look back on the days of the “Carl, Dick & George Show” and laugh.
But first, Americans have to get through an election, and decide whether it’s about the economy, the war, the economy, climate change, the economy, immigration, or the economy.
At times like this, it is a huge comfort to be an Alaskan, with our steady, laser-like concentration on the one question that matters: “When do I get my share of ANWR oil profits?”
Meanwhile, as a loyal American, it just gets my goat that the candidates and voters harp on change, obsessing on the way the president’s first response to the terrorist attacks was to tell us to go to Disneyland, or on a few minor hiccups like wiretapping Americans without warrants, invading a country based on false intelligence, firing prosecutors, denying climate change, and mispronouncing “nuclear.”
They seem to have forgotten all the solid accomplishments of the current administration. So here’s an exhaustive list of things the next president should keep the same:
• The stunning china pattern Laura chose for state dinners.
Now that that’s out of the way, it’s time for Conundrum of the Week, another brain-teaser drawn from the headlines of real life.
On Thursday, the only officer to receive any punishment in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal had his wrist publicly unslapped by the Army. Kudos to Lt. Col. Steven Jordan for admitting the investigation had some flaws.
But the original question remains: Why didn’t every officer in the chain of command from second louie to three stars resign of their own accord as soon as the pictures came out?
In the country with a tradition of military heroes from John Paul Jones to Audie Murphy who embody courage and honor, it’s interesting to see that the buck now stops with a lance-corporal.
Copy editor Drew Herman takes full responsibility for the Mirror’s former policy of reporter abuse.