Wow - most all the candidates had something realistically meaniful to say.
Even Hillary who I thought I would never even consider won some points with me for her concern over how we are handling Iran without any direct diplomacy. She was critical of this when for decades we negotiated with the USSR over nuclear weapons which were pointed directly at the US. That made a lot of sense to me. Why is Iran part of the Axis of Evil, yet we had numerous successful diplomatic efforts with the USSR? Why cannot we do the same thing again? For now - IT'S BECAUSE WE ARE NOT EVEN TRYING!
And while at least on candidate called for an increase in the tax on fuel to fund research, the opportunity to do so should have been exploited with the near doubling in gasoline prices over the term of not even 30 months. Why is it that the revenue from rising retail gasoline prices can just disappear into shareholders' pockets without any longer term societal benefit and little be said except some off-base whining about gouging, but if a modest tax is proposed even when gasoline was cheaper, cries that the economy will fall apart begin??? The cost to fund alternative fuels and techologies for renewable resources and improved efficiency technologies could have been funded many times over with a tax only the fraction of the gasoline price run up over the past months, but lack of courage has given society nothing.