For what it’s worth,
here’s my two cents

Ask the Lawyer
By Stewart J. Berger

Once in a while, I stray from the political advice format and offer my two cents on the world today — in the strictly for-what-it’s-worth department.
Let’s start with Burma.
The country suffered a devastating cyclone. Thousands of people have died and millions more are displaced. The United States is begging for permission to aid this country.
The Burmese government hates the United States and everything we stand for. Why we have any interest in conflict with Burma is beyond me.
Question: If Burma hates us, makes us jump through hoops to give them our aid and cost the taxpayers money that we don’t have to spend, why are we doing it?
As a moral answer, we are trying to aid victims of a natural disaster. But should we have to get on our hands and knees and beg them to take our aid and our taxpayers’ dollars while the infrastructure of our own country is falling apart, our schools are dilapidated and there is no money in our country for anything except war?
What is your opinion?
Everybody is concerned about the upcoming presidential election. The question that I pose is whether Republicans win elections or Democrats lose them. Let’s look at history.
The Democrats nominated Michael Dukakis, George McGovern, Walter Mondale and John Kerry. Whether any of these men would have made good presidents, we will never know.
What we do know is this. When the Democratic party’s faithful pick extremely liberal candidates, they hand the election to the Republicans.
The Republicans seem to get away with nominating extremely conservative candidates, such as our current president, George W. Bush, but still win elections.
When the Democrats stray too far from the center left, history has taught us that defeat for the Democratic nominee is around the corner.
There’s an old saying in politics that nobody votes for the vice president. Conventional wisdom indicates this is true. However, this election might be different.
John McCain is in his 70s and has health issues. In this case, his running mate is of critical importance.
If he yanks somebody from the far right, like Mike Huckabee, the independents and moderates will probably tell him to go pound sand. If he picks somebody more to the center, then he alienates the right wing of his party.
Barack Obama is in an equally difficult situation. If he picks Hillary Clinton and she accepts, the party may unite, but the chances of this happening are remote.
My guess is that he will pick Joe Biden of Delaware. Biden is a respected, experienced older person. This could be a winning combination.
Finally, one of our U.S. senators is getting involved in football matters.
With the economy in shambles, the national health crisis unsolved, the war in Iraq that has now lasted longer than World War II and the Medicare system and Social Security about to go belly up, I respectfully suggest that we are paying our federal government officials to try to solve problems that are far more important than football. ••
Stewart J. Berger is an attorney with offices at 7207 Rising Sun Ave. Questions and comments may be addressed to Ask The Lawyer, c/o The Northeast Times, 2512 Metropolitan Drive, Trevose, PA 19053