Art Simon for VP Blog Launched!

Ok, we are taking this to the next step, a blog . . . Art Simon for Vice President Blog. Check it out and join our the Google Group todayas well (artsimonforvp@googlegroups.com).

Oh My God, I got a comment from Martin Simon!

Ok, favorite comment ever on one of my blogs:

Todd-I think Art Simon for V.P. is a great idea! I'm also pleased that my dad,
Paul Simon, provided political inspiration to you 20 years ago. You are
obviously a man of great wisdom! I'll tell my uncle to start working on his
stump speech!! -- Martin Simon (emphasis added)

Ok, the possibilities are:
a) This isn't really from Martin Simon, but some person went to Wikipedia and found out that Paul Simon had 2 children, one of whom is named Martin and this person is playing a joke on me.
b) There really is a Martin Simon who is a bigger fan of Sen. Paul Simon and Rev. Art Simon than I am. (Is that possible? ;-)
c) I am a hopeless political and religous geek that found in the example of two brothers who grew up in the as Lutheran Church (Missouri Synod) as a worthy model to emulate. (I did grow up in the Mormon Church (Missouri Synod), you know.)
d) Perhaps the path that I am on (that I sometimes feel alone one) is not just an old, old path, but also the road less traveled. But it is good to know that I'm not alone. It is good to know that I'm not alone. It is good to know that I'm not alone.

(Pick 3 out of 4 for your answer, and the first letter doesn't count).

P.S. Martin if you come back this way, please drop me a line at letters@toddelkins.net. Thanks

Draft Art Simon for Vice President!

Hey, people that know me know that I'm the champion of lost causes. Not really true, I just love the underdog. Well, my patron Saint of lost causes, William Dean Russell of Graceland College fame finally picked a winner in the Iowa caucuses, Barack Obama (See Campaign Site or Wikipedia Entry). Hell did not freeze over, though it sure has been pretty cold here lately.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I love the Iowa Caucuses. Probably because I was a young impressionable student in 1988 and I cast my first vote in Lamoni for Sen. Paul Simon of Illinois (Paul Simon the Graceland Tour was the T-Shirt, get it?). Simon was running for president that year, he almost won Iowa. For a kid from a small town in Michigan it made me feel like we could change the world. Because we did, a little bit.

I guess part of me has been chasing that dream ever since, and it was a fine dream. My world(s) have gotten bigger and I've fallen down more than my share of times along the way, but I know that group of students that helped carry Lamoni in 1988 for Sen. Paul Simon weren't wrong.

I'm older, hopefully wiser and still a little naive (is it 2nd or 3rd naivete now?). Who knows. I'm enjoying watching the presidential race as an observer. Yet I still think it matters who I vote for. (Honestly I don't know yet who I will vote for, but if you ask me I'll tell you who I like).

I would be happy with any number of the presidential candidates (even 1 or 2 on the Republican side--gasp!). Yet what I really wish would happen is that people would start talking about Paul Simon's brother: Art Simon. He would make a great Vice President. (OK come on, I know that probably won't happen). It is the biggest open secret out there that most of the presidential candidates would love to be Vice President they just can't admit it yet. But I can start a draft Art Simon for Vice President movement. And what I really want is Art Simon as a Special Ambassador for World Food Security. He has been the senior statesman for the issues I've been concerned about for a long time. So why don't we make it official? (Oh by the way, I would expect that the newly created position of Special Ambassador for World Food Security be a Cabinet level appointment). Wouldn't you?

See the Facebook Group we created today. Do I have a Witness?