Amen.

Once a president begins his second term, he is branded a lame duck, and the attacks begin as the political posturing starts to rise in its rhetoric.

Not only is this a waste of time and money, but it makes the US appear to be without a leader for nearly three years, while everyone fights to take his place.

In addition, we should note that Obama, Hillary, and McCain are derelict in their duties as duly elected representatives of their states, in the Congress.

How many of the 'regular Americans' can take three paid years off of their job, to go look for a better one, and when they don't get it, get to go back to work as if they had never left it? I think that should speak volumes about the credibility of any of the candidates.

An economic principle that applies to just about every other field is this: as long as there is a demand for any product or service, laws against it or controls over it result in the creation of an underground market for it. It's a fallacy to think that laws can regulate campaign spending or advertising. Not only that, but such laws are effectively empowering to incumbents. New candidates need to spend and advertise much more to overcome the advantages of incumbancy. So if you want more of the same, by all means, support campaign reform.

Actually Earl, if you want "more of the same" wouldn't you opose reform rather than call for it? Your concerns about the power of incumbents and chanllenges of enforcing campaign rules are justified. However, there are many good ideas for simple, fair, and easy to inforce reforms that would make the process much better and more democratic. Those include instant run-off voting and publicly funded campaigns. You might check out the Green Party web sight for more information.

There are reforms and there are reforms. The ones the writer seemed to be calling for would be to the advantage of the incumbents. Limiting time and money spent on a campaign puts new challengers at a disadvantage. Reforms eliminating spending caps and time frames would be more to my liking.

John, what you haven't realized is that the number one priority of elected officials is their own re-election. If you think they're all about doing things for the good of America, then you're sadly mistaken. I'm sorry if I sound cynical, but it would be difficult for anyone to persuade me to believe differently. As far as I'm concerned, the more time politicians take off work, the better. I'm happy to pay them NOT to make new laws and regulations.

TERM LIMITS!!!!