The dilemma that faces our system is simple: we vote for someone we really don't know, we take it all at face value based on speeches written by professional speech writers and media favoritism. You said Clinton got better with time, how? He was just as enigmatic from the beginning to the end, so was Perot, neither had a clear political track that you could follow, Clinton came into the race with tons of baggage from his years as governor, Perot's claim to fame : billionaire-CEO, besides that, he said he would run the country as a corporation (ridiculous.) People now vote on the spin not on the substance of the candidate, I thought GWB would make a terrible president, he did. Same for Clinton. It's up to us to weed through the layers of spin, but how many people really care or perceive that they don't have the time (priority)? I think I can sum up the malady that's been plaguing our country, both socially and politically: lax-apathy (I didn't make it up) or more famously the Don't Rock The Boat Syndrome." Lax-apathy can be applied to child rearing, politics, morals, just about any malady, if you look deep enough you'll see it lurking there along with his sister greed.