Deficits mean future tax increases pure and simple. Deficit spending should be viewed as a tax on future generations and politicians who create deficits should be exposed as tax hikers.

Many politicians are in the habit of laying it down as a self-evident proposition that no people ought to be free till they are fit to use their freedom. The maxim is worthy of the fool in the old story who resolved not to go into the water till he had learned to swim.

When you become famous you start getting invites to parties where there are famous athletes and famous rock stars politicians people who have tremendous power and affluence. It's not in my DNA but certainly I have been exposed to it.

Left-wing politicians take away your liberty in the name of children and of fighting poverty while right-wing politicians do it in the name of family values and fighting drugs. Either way government gets bigger and you become less free.

It's important to ask candidates about their beliefs in part because politicians frequently exploit religious faith - often with the idea that voters will be more likely to unthinkingly accept certain political positions so long as they arise from religious belief.

Politicians are usually the first to forget that if you assume someone else is acting in bad faith they will do the same to you. Questioning motives poisons the well.

The faith religious believers have in God is small compared to the faith people put in politicians knowing how many times they have been disappointed in the past but still insisting that this time it will be different.

You can almost see voters nodding their heads at home: The public's faith in politicians and political institutions has been on a steep and dangerous decline for decades because elected leaders fail to deliver.

From my experience politicians are much more uncomfortable being made fun of than they are being preached at and screeched at - you know and the soapbox routine. They're much more uneasy knowing they're a target of ridicule.

The trouble with this country is that there are too many politicians who believe with a conviction based on experience that you can fool all of the people all of the time.