A bit off topic here, but it is something I have been thinking about for months and it just will not go away. It is that neither McCain nor Obama are up to the task of leading our nation. The other day, a good sized group of us from all political persuasions were discussing Carly Fiorna's comment on how none of the four running for President or Vice President are qualified to be CEO of Hewlett Packard. All of us quickly agreed none of them would even be in contention for that post. At the same time, none of us thought this point terribly relevant in choosing our President/Vice President.
But, and let's please be honest here. How many people really believe either McCain or Obama are up to the task of running our nation? And why is it that every time I do a lot of reading on McCain and Obama and the upcoming election I ALWAYS find myself liking both of them even less than before? This WSJ opinion piece really brings it home. Their positions on the economy are really the last straw for me; their demagogic rantings are counterproductive. They are both acting so unpresidential as to scare me. Does anyone trust McCain or Obama more than Paulson to get us out of this mess? I sure as hell don't.
I am tempted to vote for Hillary just so when things get really bad in the next few years I will be guaranteed of being able to say "I told you so." At the same time, I am actually a bit jealous of those who seem so easily to be able to embrace either McCain or Obama with such conviction. Such faith. At the same time, I am left incredulous at how each side can blame the other for something while completely denying that the same thing is equally true of their candidate. Why is this so?
I apologize in advance as I know this post is going to make just about everyone angry and I know I am going to get a whole slew of comments as to why I am wrong, but the point here is for everyone to ask whether they really believe in "their" candidate or are they just acting as though they do for public consumption. And if you don't, and I am betting deep down, most of you don't, then let's start asking ourselves the really deep questions we should be asking ourselves as a nation, like the following:
1. Is our political system broken? If so, can it be fixed and how?
2. Is it that McCain and Obama are not up to the task, or is that our system so dysfunctional that they just appear that way? In other words, should we blame McCain and Obama for promising us "a chicken in every pot" or does our system require them to lie to us? Is it the system that requires them to lie and pander or is it the stupidity of the American people? Are the American people really that stupid, or is it just that McCain and Obama think we are? My view is that the overwhelming majority of Americans are plenty smart enough to make smart political decisions for themselves and the overwhelming majority of Americans see right through all the lies.
3. Is divided government the answer? The neutralizer?
4. Or is there really no problem at all?
My only basis for optimism is that it is hard to know who will become a really good president and in the end we just don't know. I take solace in that.
This is the last I am going to say on this election. I'm done.
Fire away.
Is Obama a Natural Born Citien? Philip J. Berg, Esquire vs. Barack Hussein Obama, a/k/a Barry Soetoro, a/k/a Barry Obama, a/k/a Barack Dunham, a/k/a Barry Dunham, et al
