A DAY IN THE LIFE: VOTING FOR GOV. MOON BEAM LIKE NOT VOTING AT ALL

It was lunchtime and the conversation had turned ugly.

"Why would you want to write-in Jerry Brown for president?" I asked Mike, one of the gentlemen I was having lunch with.

You may remember Jerry Brown from the presidential primaries four years ago when he ran against fellow Democrats Bill Clinton, Paul Tsongas and others, for the chance to unseat George Bush. Brown is the former governor of California and has a reputation for being, um, for lack of a better word, a bit flaky.

Dubbed "Gov. Moon Beam" by the California media, Brown focused much of his rhetoric on space travel instead of running the state of California, which could be one of the reasons he was defeated by Pete Wilson in 1982.

Want another? Can you say Malithion? For those of you who don't remember, Malithion was the spray that Gov. Brown refused to use to kill the medflies that were destroying hundreds of millions of dollars worth of fruit crops. He thought that the spray could be harmful to humans and animals. Apparently, the voters disagreed. Consequently, the spray is widely used today with no effects.

Brown's record shows that he asserts a cause only for brief moments in time. I don't have the space to go into all of his shortcomings here, but suffice to say that he is more than a flake -- he is, as columnist Thomas Eagleton once put it, "an intellectual chameleon of the most opportunistic sort."

Besides, Brown was better known for dating pop singer Linda Rhonstadt than the legislation he pushed through.

So my question to Mike seemed fairly logical as to why he would want to write-in such a man.

Mike's response was less than logical.

"Well, during the primaries of '92, the Democrats were having debates," my friend explained. "And during one of his responses, Jerry mentioned his 1-800 number where donations could be sent. They told him he couldn't do that, but he kept doing it anyway."

Mike looked at me, seemingly satisfied that he had more than made his case.

"Well," I replied. "You may as well write me in for president."

He looked at me, confused at that suggestion.

"But I don't want you to be president," he rejoined flatly.

Hmph.

I couldn't help but wonder if most people vote for candidates with logic such as this, which seems to be no logic at all.

But I suppose the question can be asked to all of us: Why are we voting for a particular candidate?

Why Dole? Why Clinton?

I fear most of us do not know.

In the same presidential election that Gov. Brown was involved, the name Ross Perot became a household word as a third-party candidate for president. Perot walked away with 17 percent of the popular vote.

Do any of you who voted for him know what Ross Perot's views were?

No. All most of us know of Perot is that he, much like former candidate Steve Forbes, had a ton of money so we figured he might do a better job of balancing the government checkbook than President Bush.

We seem to judge our political candidates on how good they are on TV, how effectively they give speeches and whether they have a dog or cat to bring to the White House.

Or in my sister's case, whether or not the president has nice hair or not.

Enough is enough.

It's time we, as citizens, educated ourselves about the candidates -- what they believe, what they don't, and how they plan to make this country a better place.

And in response to Mike's statement that he doesn't want me to be president.

That's Okay, I really don't have the time to be president anyway.

~Scott Moyers is the editor of the Jackson U.S.A. Signal.