Allowing money to influence our elections is wrong and claiming that limiting the amount someone can give to a party limits free speech is a specious argument. Many voters don't understand the importance of these issues, and others will soon forget how anyone voted. The candidates themselves won't bring it up. It would also be a help in electing the right people if we could insist that when they make a campaign speech, they use their own words. It is so apparent, as you listen to the candidates, that when they speak they almost always read from a sheaf of papers in front of them with words that have been written by someone else.
Speechwriters are an important part of any politician's entourage.
The words are carefully written to hide parts of the candidate's record and emphasize hot air. Politicians ought to be obliged to give credit to their writers every time they read something written by someone else. When politicians are talking about issues, they ought to be expressing their own ideas with their own words. If a politician knows what he thinks, he ought to be able to tell us what he thinks. I'd like to hear all the candidates running for re-election explain, in their own words, why they voted against the nuclear test ban and campaign finance reform.