Joe Hallett commentary: Solving the nation’s big problems is harder than it looks
Columbus Dispatch – Four pals since elementary school surely could agree on how America should address five major policy issues of the day, we mused on the lift to the top of the Nub's Nob Ski Area in northern Michigan.
When finished, we'll call it the Nub's Nob Accord, a shining example to our bitterly divided country and Congress of how four citizens with sharply contrasting political and ideological views can find common ground.
On the far right were two tea partiers – a pharmacist and a retired General Motors engineer. Toward the center was an attorney, a self-described moderate Republican. I am what you think I am – judging by correspondence, half of the readers of this column view me as a liberal and the other three think I'm a conservative.
I should have known that our playful attempt to craft the Nub's Nob Accord would be difficult based on the previous night's inane but heated argument over whether Glenn Beck knows what the heck he is talking about. The engineer swore by Beck; the lawyer said he was a goofball.
