Maybe it's just me but when people are in politics, shouldn't they abide by the same rules of society as everyone else?

For the purposes of this commentary I will keep my observation truth in advertising.

 As a spokesman for several different products and services, the public has grown to trust my recommendations over the last 16 years. If I were to mislead them on a selected company, the trust I worked so hard to develop would evaporate, and I would be rejected by the listening public. My stock as a public spokesman would disappear, and most likely my position as a talk show host would soon follow.

It is for that reason I wish we would place the same type of "credibility risk exposure" upon elected leaders. If a candidate lies about about their opponent, and that lie is proven, they either would be sued or penalized in some fashion. If the candidate lies while in office, or breaks a promise he made to the voters, he is to be removed from office, and the second choice in the previous election gets a shot at the office.

Think that's nuts? Hardly.  In preperation for a book I have been working on, regarding performance by politicians in office,  I sought out a former Fall River Massachusetts Mayor and City Councilman named Daniel E. Bogan who after losing a re-election bid in the mid 70's was brought back  to office when another member of the council, Robert Baker, left his seat to assume a position in the private sector in another city.  The city charter required the voter registrar go back to the previous election's voter roles and look for the name of the candidate who finished just out of the running for a council seat. That man was Bogan, who was not only thrust back into the political arena, but later named the city's Mayor and became the subject of a highly controversal Supreme Court decision in the late 1990's (Bogan v. Harris) regarding soverign immunity.

Bogan last week told me how an energized voting public can in fact hold political leader's feet to the fire, by calling them on false promises. Though it's not likely elected leaders will empower the voters to easily remove elected  officers for breaking campaign promises, voters can put candidates on notice in a numbers of ways, which carry weight, and penalities  to those who break  promises.

I am not naive enough to think we can toss people out for not fullfilling all promises, but I think we can force the issue of truth ,if the voters have the political will to do the work to make all those running for office more accountable. I for one have had enough.

I am tired of candidates saying, "I'll have to research that a little more, and get back to you." If a candidate suggests a cut in the duplication of services, the candidate should be able to provide at least one concrete example of that duplication in an interview. You would be surprised to find how many of these candidates do not bank on being tested by the public.

Remember when there was a time a candidate had to know at least something about the office they were seeking? In the last 5 years I have interviewed no fewer than 15 candidates, whom upon scrutiny, revealed they had never even attended a meeting of the board or group they were planning to serve upon.

Whhhaaaaatttt? "Calgon take me away." 

The next time someone asks you for your vote ask them how they intend to fullfill their promises. If they eye shift during the answer, you have learned all you need to know.  That's what I think.