Another questionable presidential appointment

I think there's general agreement that Obama is the best President since Carter - but appointments like this make me doubt that he's ever going to top him.

Obama has now nominated Chuck Hurley to head the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Hurley is currently the CEO of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

I have to seriously question anyone who has had recent major involvement in MADD. MADD has strayed so far from its original purpose as to be unrecognizable. MADD's own founder quit the organization because it began focusing less on drunk driving than on criminalizing drinking altogether. MADD has become a prohibitionist group.

MADD even opposes the designated driver campaign, claiming it encourages people who don't drive to drink. And it has long supported the national 21 drinking age - one of the biggest failures in modern American history.

MADD demonizes anyone who dares to question the national 21 policy. When a group of college presidents suggested reexamining the federally imposed drinking age, MADD demanded that parents boycott these schools by not sending their kids there.

Because Hurley has run MADD for several years, he's largely responsible for this continuing disconnect between MADD and effective public polices.

Hurley has also been a staunch proponent of red light cameras - which have been ineffective at making our roads safer. In fact, the cameras have actually increased traffic mishaps. The cameras are used primarily as revenue generators - for local governments and for the big businesses that operate the cameras. Indeed, camera manufacturers have bankrolled much of the movement towards red light cams.

How's that for corporatism?

Don't expect major improvement in Americans' lives unless the type of hackneyed thinking displayed by the likes of Chuck Hurley is eschewed, as it should have been years ago.