Mitt Romney’s campaign launched a new viral video the morning of the first GOP political debate.  The strategy is pretty simple – attack the president and let everyone else who isn’t a “perceived frontrunner” climb all over themselves to keep up.

It’s the right political message – but in a time when we need candidates with plans and answers, Romney’s high production values, opportunistic quote grabbing and emotive directing falls short of providing anything of substance.  In fact, only one message comes across loud and clear: “Blame Obama and avoid anything risky.  Like having a plan.”

As voters, we should be getting tired of this by now.

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I’m a big fan of Howard Kurtz and his show on CNN, Reliable Sources.  I also like Brooke Gladstone and Bob Garfield, and their show on NPR, On the Media.

Why is that?  Because I value objective criticism of the news media and – to a larger extent – the media in general.  As an amateur historian and a professional in the field of shaping opinion (i.e. marketing/PR flack), I see a correlation between the general success of a social order and the vitality of the media in which it operates.  Effective communication is essential to the proper functioning of any society.

And as those chains of communication break down, so do the relationships that make the social order function … orderly.

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The political wars over healthcare reform waged by politicians and special interests seem to have died down for a while – or if they haven’t died down, they’ve at least fallen beyond the horizon and, thus, have left the collective mind of an attention-deficient American public.  So as long as no one is looking, let’s have a quiet little discussion about an idea I had that could have a tremendous impact on the healthcare economy in this country and, as far as I can tell, have minimal political fallout.

The idea is pretty simple: let’s include the calorie count of every food and menu item right next to its price.

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So much of the problem with our search for productive and civil political discourse  seems to lie in the stigma attached to the word “racist.”  The fact is that a lot of people in this country are uncomfortable with race as an issue and that’s because (whether they want to admit it or not) so much of their view of the world point-of-view comes from their perspective as a “white” or a “black” or as someone of some other ethnic background.

Looked at objectively, being “racist” and making “discriminating” decisions based on that point of view is part of human nature. As humans evolved, we learned to put more trust in people that looked like us and shared common social values.

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My name is Mike Bawden and I have a confession to make … I’m a raging moderate.

And this is my blog.

It will be a journal of my thoughts on everything I’m interested in: history, politics, music, media.  Every day, I find humor and angst mixed in a variety of concoctions and served up in a multitude of ways.  I intend to write about it here.

You may like my take on life and living it.  You may disagree.  That’s your prerogative.  I even give you an opportunity to express your agreement – or disagreement – on every blog post.  But keep it civil.  Respect is a big deal with me.

I hope you enjoy the ride.