America is fed up with DC politics and wants change. They clearly are heading away from the partisan fringes and looking at someone who “Unites” instead of “Purifies”. With Hillary now defeat-able and Obama rising America is just now trying to work out where to go in 2008. I suggest they begin by ignoring the media spin machine and answer some basic question for themselves before they settle on a candidate. Here are question that I think worth pondering as independents or non-aligned voters:

(1) What do I want changed in Iraq?

Being an independent I don’t take Dem or GOP talking points into consideration. I do take their historic positions. Right now Iraq is heading towards victory. Do I want to change that? Or is my need for “change” more rooted in the long gone days of early 2007 when the blood was running in the streets of Iraq? I clearly wanted that to change. And back then the answer from the Dems was to surrender to al-Qaeda. I definitely did not want that! So for me the “change” I want to see in Iraq is an end to the democrat pessimism and calls for retreat. I want to see plans to join forces to finish winning Iraq. And from the right I want respect for any Dem who makes this change (no name calling). My need for “change” is to see us uniting to win in Iraq. This shouldn’t be hard since The Surge and The Awakening in 2007 has us almost there already.

(2) What do I want changed in DC?

Again, as a independent and still strong Bush supporter I want more Bush and less Pelosi and Tancredo. Everyone blames Bush for the ugly tone of politics but the fact is he did not coin the mature and respectful terms “Bushitler” and “El Presedente Jorge Bush”. While it is mentally easier to blame Bush for driving his opponents mad while they lose to him, the fact is I am less interested in “changing” Bush as I am in changing his political opponents and their name calling tactics. Bush gets battered by the very folks who oppose compromise and unity – supposedly the winning core themes from Obama and Huckabee!

(3) What do I not want changed On The Issues?

At the center of the 2008 political debate is the basic question: what is it we want changed on the issues? I for one want an end to partisan gridlock and zero-sum outcomes. I want some progress. I want what I saw on taxes, education, prescription drugs under Bush – reasonable progress that both sides could declare some victories on (yet pissed off the fringes no end). I want more of what was possible with the two attempts at comprehensive immigration reform (where the ONLY sticking point was “amnesty”, what to do with the 20 million long term illegals in country). Two Congresses under each party’s leadership failed to make any progress. I think I represent the broad middle who may not agree on issues or solutions, but agree some progress is better than letting wounds fester. For example, even if you cannot get to a plastic surgeon to perfectly deal with a cut, it is better to patch up a cut than let it continue to bleed and get infected. So I think the driving force pushing Obama and Huckabee is close to right – we want to change our current fringe-focused politics (where nothing gets done but lots of name calling) to one that sits on the common ground of cross-party alliances. I think that part is correct, just not well focused. The barrier to unity is not Bush who unified the hate of the fringes – it is the fringes themselves.

(4) What is it I don’t want changed?

Just as important has where we want to go is what we don’t want to revisit. We don’t want higher taxes – the economy is fine and the government is more than well fed. We don’t want to remove prescription drugs or stop monitoring the progress of our education dollars. We don’t want to start losing in Iraq again. We don’t want to start slaughtering young humans in their embryonic state in spare-parts factories – especially since adult stem cell therapies are showing enormous progress across a spectrum of ailments. We don’t want our national secrets leaked to the media for political gain. We don’t want a war on Islam, we want to focus our fight on al-Qaeda and like minded fascist groups. We don’t want every Muslim nation our enemy, we want many of them at least were they are now – our allies.

The field of ideas is wide open now because the dogma of the parties has been shattered. Americans just need to think about what they really want in “change”, and what they don’t want changed, and then the best answers will become crystal clear.