The U.S. presidential primaries that rumbled through Iowa and New Hampshire in low gear have now shifted into drive.

U.S. children may occasionally fanaticize about becoming President, but Paul Simon, a (now deceased) friend of mine since early adolescence, was always serious about it as a career goal. He began his long distinguished political career at 26 as a Representative in the Illinois Legislature and he ended it as a US Senator. But he also was a serious candidate during the 1988 Democratic presidential primary campaign.

From childhood, Paul was one of the most genuinely moral, ethical, and inner-directed people I have ever known – everything one would wish for in a politician. I never had the slightest interest in a political career, but Paul and other visionaries who master its complexities at the national level fascinate me. For example, the Senate Majority Leader's task has been described as, “like trying to keep a bunch of frogs in a moving wheelbarrow.”