What do we know about "issues?"

1)  First, numerous commentators have said that Clinton and Obama's positions are much the same, differing chiefly in details, but are very different from current Bush and anticipated McCain policies.

2)  But, on the war in Iraq, the biggest issue, Obama criticizes Clinton for having voted to give Bush permission to invade and overthrow Saddam some five years ago.  He points out that he opposed the war from the start, and says he would begin a phased withdrawal immediately after taking office in January 2009.  Clinton is (I believe) unwilling to make a similar commitment, and charges that Obama wouldn't really make a withdrawal as he has described, either.  My impression is that her inclination is to withdraw some troops too, but very cautiously.

3) On the economy, which is perhaps overtaking the war as the major issue for the public, honestly I haven't heard a whole lot.  Nothing specific comes to mind.  I believe both think that the response of the Bush administration and Congress to the housing market meltdown was too slow, and is not sufficiently comprehensive.  (McCain, more forthrightly, says he doesn't know much about economics, but today he is giving a speech on the subject.  I do appreciate his forthrightness).

4)  On health care, which has been perhaps the most discussed problem, Hillary wants universal coverage, and apparently would require everyone to buy health insurance.  She criticizes Obama for not seeking universal coverage, which he says he does favor, but he would try to make it very attractive financially, rather than actually requiring purchases by everybody.  (It is not clear to me how any purchase requirement would be enforced).

4) On international trade, both have offered some criticism of NAFTA.  Hillary, who certainly supported NAFTA during Bill's term, charges that Obama isn't really a critic at all--something like that--although she herself is now.  I don't believe I have heard anything about other aspects, although Hillary certainly often indicates she has sympathy for auto-workers.

5)  On international relations, Hillary would not negotiate with the heads of "enemy states."  Obama would be willing to negotiate with anybody.  

6)  On Iran, Hillary again voted for legislation that might permit the president to take military action on this new front.  I guess Obama did not.

7)  On immigration, I can't say.  Ditto on social security, medicare, tax reform, education.  Ditto on global warming, endangered species, energy, public lands, infrastructure (like falling bridges, etc.).  And on practically everything.

Perhaps my memory isn't very good, and certainly I didn't try to look anything up.  But for sure we know more about Rev. Wright and, lately, about how Hillary didn't land in Bosnia under sniper fire--even though she claimed she did--and such matters than we do any major substantive concerns.

However, I'm not going to enter a plea for paying attention to public problems and policy proposals to deal with them.  It is clear that the public, and the media, simply don't care about such things.  If the candidates themselves do care, they can't get substantive matters into prime time.

So, the public doesn't care now, and it isn't very likely to care when we finally have a Democratic candidate to run against John McCain.  We seem to be spiraling downward into a situation where the coverage of an election is pretty much like the coverage of Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, or Britney Spears.  

The latter of whom, I am pleased to see, is perhaps making something of a comeback!

Hope that the Democrats do too!  

Not to mention, democracy.