DISCUSSION: BOCCIERI OR SCHURING - POLICY-WONKS?

Anyone who has personally met with and talked with 16th District Congressional candidates Democrat John Boccieri and Republican Kirk Schuring would not come away thinking he/she has just spoken with a "policy-wonk."

Such is typical of politicians. They generally are not deep-thinkers who can get at the causes of problems and thereby figure out solutions.

Since neither Boccieri nor Schuring qualifies as a wonk, who, among the two, has a greater "grasping" the complexities of the issues capability?

That, the STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT (The Report), urges should be determinative of whom among this duo the voting public sends to Washington.

So far in this campaign, both candidates have been local mouthpieces of the "talking points" of their respective parties.

Schuring's lead man (McCain) blames the current problems on the greed of Wall Street types.

Boccieri's main man, Obama, to his credit, does point to policy positions (probably the wrong ones to point at) as his campaign approach.

What Boccieri and Schuring ought to do to get a basic understanding of why America has a monumental financial problem on its hands is to read a mere 895 words of a piece entitled: Anatomy of a Crisis by Barry Eichengreen (University of California, Berkley economics professor).

Either Boccieri or Schuring is going to Congress and will be working longer term on the underlying problems which have caused the current crisis.

Whomever it is, shouldn't this person have a basic understanding of the problem. Don't 16th District voters owe it to themselves, to Ohio and, indeed, to the nation to try to figure out whom among the two "gets it?"