A Better Way

I must say, I was never a fan of Survivor.  I’ve seen just one or two episodes.  It seemed kind of fake, but some of the things they had to do seriously looked pretty hard.  But I certainly never got into it to the point where I knew the characters, or had favorites.

The Next Governor of Indiana?

But, apparently, one popular contestant was a guy named Rupert Boneham.  Then, he continued building the good will by using a lot of his 1 million dollar prize money for a charity called Rupert’s Kids, which helps underprivileged children.  So, basically, he seems like a really likeable guy.

And now he’s running for Governor of Indiana.  As a libertarian.  A lot of people are pretty unhappy about this, saying “Being a hot shot on survivor and eating bugs does not qualify him for office.”  Well, it doesn’t disqualify him, either.  And it means a large percentage of the population has seen how he reacts in a stressful, competitive situation.  It’s certainly more than we have seen (or, as I suspect) would ever want to see, of any Republican candidate.

That Libertarian label gives me greater pause, though.  The name has a nice ring to it, liberty is great stuff, I’m all for liberty, but all libertarians are crazy Ron Paul types who want to abolish the EPA, the IRS, the FDA or the NEA, perhaps even all of the above.

So, I’m plenty suspicious of Mr. Boneham.  But the desert island experience works in his favor.  In fact, it gives me an idea.  First, just forget about all this non-stop campaigning for years before the election.  It’s a pain in the butt and, out of the dozen or so people currently seeking the office, only one will get it, so a whole bunch are going to go home disappointed.

Gather the candidates in one studio location 3 weeks before election day.  Have some programs where they have to spin a wheel and speak on whatever topic it lands on, one where they have to get across a rope bridge, one where they have to work together to build a treehouse, one where they have to answer questions from the audience rapid fire and if they went off topic or gave a non-answer answer, a bucket of fish would fall on their head, one where they all play a big game of risk on a big, war-rooms type table but they are given realistic scenarios and any egregiously stupid answers, like not knowing that Africa has more than one country or how to pronounce Uzbekistan, you have to lose two turns, pay a billion dollar fine, and lose 10 percent of your army.

I don’t know if the quality of candidates would actually be improved.  But it couldn’t possibly be decreased.