Sometimes Andy Rooney can't help telling the awful truth

(CBS) The following is a weekly 60 Minutes commentary by CBS News Correspondent Andy Rooney. 5/9/04

Am I the only one who's tired of this election campaign already?

I don't know who the candidates think they're talking to. The only ones who come to listen are people who were already going to vote for them.

Republicans come to hear Bush. Democrats come to hear Kerry.

Has anything John Kerry said changed the mind of a single person who was going to vote for George W. Bush? Has anything George W. Bush said changed the mind of a single person who was going to vote for Kerry?

The president has spent 20 of the last 60 days away from the Oval Office. He's been busy making petty little speeches to faithful followers. He had a $184 million to spend, trying to keep a job that pays him $400,000 a year.

The money John Kerry will have to spend, trying to get himself into The White House is less, but it isn't pocket change either. Something like a $100 million.

I fail to understand why it's legal to try to buy an election.

Each candidate should have the same amount of money to spend, and all of us ought to pay for it - not just people who are interested in having the president do something for them after he's elected.

If President Bush wants to make sure he gets re-elected, I have a suggestion. He ought to make a major announcement and say something like this:

"Americans, I'm proud to be your president. I want to be your president for four more years, but I've made my last campaign speech. We've got one great big mess in Iraq that I may have gotten us into. Too many of our soldiers are dying. I thought I was doing the right thing but I was wrong.

"There's too much for me to do as president to be traveling all over the country, making canned campaign speeches, trying to talk people who were already going to vote for me into voting for me. From this day forward, I'm going to devote full time to being your president, not your candidate.

"I won't be raising any more money, because I'm not going to spend anymore. I'm not going to do anything but try to fix what's broken.

"If you elect Kerry, that's your problem. I'm not going to do anything, but my job to try and stop him."

End of speech. How tough would that be for John Kerry to deal with? The president could give what's left of that $180 million to Ralph Nader and let him argue with Kerry.