Elections: Promises, Promises

I view with detached amusement political ads from DC and Maryland, where of course I do not live and cannot vote. Few if any of the candidates in either place are real conservatives and so I just sit back and watch the various strains of liberalism compete with one another to buy the votes of the populace.

One ad in particular struck me recently: A college diploma sits on a shelf high up on a wall. Two or three little kids try everything to reach it, but they just can't. Why, oh why, is it out of their reach? Won't someone help them?

Like the deus ex machina comes Super Candidate, Martin O'Malley, mayor of Baltimore (surely one of the filthiest and most dangerous cities on the east coast). I'll help you, children! he seems to be saying as he gently lifts it down for them.

The voice-over and the text then inform us that O'Malley-- let's call him MO'M-- will freeze tuition rates at state universities so that a college education is afforable to all. Let's hear it for MO'M! A genius! What a powerful and enlightened man! Why, he's one of the five best mayors in the country!

But can MO'M freeze the basic economic forces that act behind all prices and costs? Does MO'M understand basic economics? If he doesn't, what's he doing in public office? If he does, why is he ignoring realities? Worse still, he's making promises on the back of future generations, who will have to pay for the "frozen" tuition rates, as well as the other unintended consequences of his ignorant socialist policies.

Choose wisely, Maryland.