don's report archive

by Donald B. Ardell, Ph. D.

Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)

I am pleased to announce today the establishment of a presidential exploratory advisory committee. The committee will consist of all regular visitors to SeekWellness.com -- which means YOU are on my committee. Congratulations.

Your assignment, if you choose to accept it and I'm confident you will, is to tell your friends why I would make a better president than any of the Republicans who have formed presidential exploratory advisory committees (Sen. John McCain of AR, former MA Gov. Mitt Romney, Senator Sam Brownback of KS, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and CO Representative Tom Tancredo) and almost as good as the Democrats who have formed presidential exploratory advisory committees (Governor Bill Richardson of NM, US Senators Barack Obama of IL, Joe Biden of DE, Chris Dodd of CT and Hillary Clinton of NY, former NC Senator John Edwards, Rep. Dennis Kucinich of OH and Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack).

Why would I make a better candidate than any of the Republicans and be almost as good as the Democrats? I'm sure you know the many answers to this rhetorical question, but (just in case) I'll mention a few of my strengths, which you can relay to your friends:

1. I'm not a Republican.
   
   
2. I know more about wellness.
   
   
3. I'm not part of the dreaded Beltway inner circle. (I don't even know where it is.)
   
   
4. Nobody can criticize my voting record (I have none), nor my experience (I have already honed my campaign skills in a run for mayor of Tampa in 2003). In that race, I demonstrated a knack for cool slogans ("The oldest, fittest, fastest and prettiest of all the candidates").

Granted, this is not a very strong platform so far, but the election is nearly two years off. There's plenty of time to decide what I stand for, what I would do if elected and why I want to run, if I decide to, based on your explorations.

What about YOU? Have you explored the idea of running for president? Or are you going to go through life letting other people do all the exploring?

I'm not sure what you should do as a member of my presidential exploratory advisory committee but I suspect there's a lot to be done. So, get to work.

Postscript: I sent a pre-announcement of my plans to set up this committee to my partner and friend Grant Donovan in Perth, Australia. This was Grant's response:  "Sorry Don, I make it a point to never join any committees, even if I'm eligible. My life is too short. Nevertheless, I support your right to form an exploratory committee for your possible run at the presidency. But, to save time, I'm sure the US, like most countries, would do better by randomly choosing a president out of the phone directory. In fact, all public offices should be by lottery. Now that's democratic."

I think Grant may be on to something, so I am disbanding my committee. I know you would have served with distinction so, let me say, "Thank you very much, but explore no more. I'd prefer a lottery, also."

(Note: This essay will be filed in the archives in the MEANING DOMAIN under the skill area of applied wellness. Additional articles related to this theme may be found there.)

(Ed. Note: Views expressed in this and other columns are those of the author and not necessarily those of the SeekWellness Editorial Board.)

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