Rhoads: What matters is how candidates will make our world better

By Mark Rhoads - 

TIME Magazine once called David Ogilvy (1911-1999) "The Father of Modern Advertising."  He was known for many great principles of advertising one of which was this. "It's not your grass seed they care about, it's how their lawn will look."

Many candidates seem to think that voters are most interested in the grass seed the candidate wants to sell them. That's why they talk so much about their resume and experience. But that is not what voters want to know about most. They want to know how their own lives and those of their children will improve or not depending on the policies the candidate will pursue if elected to office.

Sure a resume is important when you are hunting for a job. But President of the United States is the highest office in the free world and is not just any job. The office demands a very complex combination of constitutional duties, leadership skills, and hopefully sound moral principles. While it was the most lively debate so far, none of the candidates in the Houston last night did a terrific job of including you, the voter, in their vision for the country.

One candidate thinks his real estate experience in the art of the deal is what America needs. Another candidate claims he alone among all candidates is the most pure conservative.  Another conservative candidate thinks he alone has the best chance to unite the GOP. A fourth candidate thinks only a state governor is qualified to move to The White House like a Blue Bird flies up to be a Campfire Girl. A fifth candidate thinks America wants the hands of a surgeon to be the hands that are entrusted with political leadership in spite of the fact that most of his life has been devoted to medicine and not to the study of public policy.

But none of the candidates fully explained how your life gets better and the nation as a whole gets better. They could all benefit from a David Ogilvy seminar. They should all tell us more about our lawn and less about their grass seed.