Prior to the election, those who have followed my columns have seen that I enjoy publishing polls to get a sense of the vine on a variety of issues. Now that the election is over and our distinguished legislators and executives are going to have to get down to the business of governing this vast and highly divided nation, it may be a good idea for them to have some idea about what the priorities of the people might be outside of the beltway.

I came up with the idea of doing a series of polls here on the vine over a period of the next few months. What I am going to attempt to do within the polls is to have the readers of the vine to indicate the priority in which they would like to see our elected officials tackle the major issues that confront this nation. What I will try to do, however, is not state the question in an overly partisan format. I will be seeking where the readers think that these issues should be prioritized. Whether the ultimate determination would be left, right or center is what we pay our leaders to do.

My goal is to publish goals in the following areas: {1} the economy & taxes, {2} foreign policy, {3} religious observance & religion in the public arena, (4} education, {5} infrastructure development, (6}rights issues including minority and women's rights, {7) immigration policy, {8} climate change and science, {9}voting rights, and {10} healthcare and entitlement reform issues.

I hope those of you here on the vine will be interested in this approach. If it proves to be a successful format, I will try to post the same polls on other group sites that allow polling. Let me know what you think.