All of the presidential candidates are doing their best to distance themselves from Washington and "politics as usual," but why? Is it because 1 out of 20 people in the District of Columbia is HIV positive? Is it because 1 out of 50 people in the capital has full blown AIDS? Is it because D.C. has the highest per capita murder rate in the U.S.? The highest per capita hate crime rate?

No? Then I guess it must be due to how fed up the American people are with all of the political bullshit that goes on in our government: the problems with campaign finance, the constant partisan bickering, lobbyists and special interest groups taking priority over the American people. Then you have politicians skipping votes (absenteeism), the overly extravagant and expensive junkets, and the scandals, sex or otherwise-- not to mention the fact that the same families are running the government (even the black guy is related to the craziest of the white guys).

And so our beloved candidates profess themselves to be catalysts of Change, either Washington Outsiders or those who have not been corrupted by politics. Now forgive me if this is a dumb question, but if all of this is such a big problem, what are we going to do about the executive branch of the government where we seem to think the entire problem stems from? I'm no doctor, but isn't the goal usually to attack the ailment at its source?

This year is not just about the executive branch. Every single spot in the House of Representatives is up (all 435 spots every two years) and 35 Senatorial seats (33 regular and 2 special elections). It might be illegal to gamble on national elections, but in a friendly wager, I'm willing to say that at least 75% of the incumbents will win. Even the fresh faces will be practically the same people but associated with the opposite party. While we seem to be clamoring for change, I'm pretty certain in the general elections we will waste a chance to replace over a third of the Senate and the entire Congress. Instead, we'll fall back on our Ted Kennedys and Larry Craigs.

In order for true change to occur, the president needs to be its implementer, not its catalyst. The candidates can tout change and outside Washington politics until Kucinich is allowed into a debate, but unless it occurs in more than one branch, the only change we'll be talking about is what's left in Social Security. Who knows, maybe this will be the year, or maybe, if I'm lucky, a resurgent Symbionese Liberation Army will kidnap Paris Hilton and I can forget about this whole mess. 15 minutes to brain wash her and four weeks to wash her.