I think all the smart kids in our generation who understand that anything they post on the internet can come back to haunt them will be dissauded from public life just like you were. This phenomenon will dissuade anybody who has enough courage and self-respect to reject living in constant fear of doing something that will haunt them later in their political careers. If the bright, the brave, and the self-respecting are repelled, what kind of leadership talent pool would that leave us with?

I think all the smart kids in our generation who understand that anything they post on the internet can come back to haunt them will be dissauded from public life just like you were. This phenomenon will dissuade anybody who has enough courage and self-respect to reject living in constant fear of doing something that will haunt them later in their political careers. If the bright, the brave, and the self-respecting are repelled, what kind of leadership talent pool would that leave us with?

Look at who Blago just nominated: someone with such a boring and uneventful past that he knew could be vetted for years without much of anything popping up. Politicians will nearly always make the safe choice. So will the American people, I think.

And because the only two ways to get into a public office are appointment and election, I think we will all be stuck making the “safe” choice for years to come. It could be the safer of two wild-and-crazy guys. Or it could mean the election of a safe candidate over one with a storied past. In the end, though, I think it will end up really tripping us up, because in many cases, we'll actually be nominating the candidate with the better cover-up and work-around skills over the candidate who fully discloses or who can't hire a staff to wipe his history off the radar.