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Friday, August 29. 2008
Enough!
That was the clarion call of Senator Barack Obama to all Americans Thursday Night. Not just Democrats, but Republicans and Independents as well. Frankly, it was the best speech I’ve heard Obama give since his keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.Enough, because “… we love this country too much to let the next four years look like the last eight.”
Enough, because “… America, we are better than these last eight years. We are a better country than this.”
Enough, because “We are more compassionate than a government that lets veterans sleep on our streets and families slide into poverty; that sits on its hands while a major American city drowns before our eyes.”
Enough, because “… what does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush has been right more than ninety percent of the time?”
Enough, because Senator John McCain doesn’t get it.
Every criticism, every insult McCain and the Republican party have hurled at Obama and Clinton in the past 18 months, Obama turned it back on them. Judgment: McCain agreed with President Bush over 90% of the time. Life experience: the heroes in Obama’s life are his mother and grandparents, the people who work in the factories and on the farms or start small businesses with bright ideas, not the celebrity life McCain suggested when he compared Obama to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.
Reminding us that for the 26 years McCain has been in the Senate, Congress has been grappling with the question of foreign oil and Senator McCain has voted against every measure designed to change our dependency on petroleum.
Reminding us that shortly after 9-11, when most everyone was ready and willing to find and eliminate Al Qa’ida in Afghanistan, McCain was talking about invading Iraq — just as the neocons in the Executive Branch were doing.
And probably the best dig at McCain came when Obama said, “If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament, and judgment, to serve as the next Commander-in-Chief, that’s a debate I’m ready to have.”
One of the many criticisms of John McCain is his harsh temper. His Republican colleagues spoke of it before he started to look like he would be their party’s nominee. Now of course they will deny any such thing. Begs the question: Is John McCain suffering from PTSD?
John McCain has been riding his history as a war hero all through this election. Frankly, it’s beginning to wear thin. Ask him a policy question — or a personal question — and McCain’s answer is likely to include his story about being a P.O.W.
When McCain ran in 2000 and got slimed by the very people who are now running his campaign, he rarely, if ever, brought up his military record and his time as a P.O.W. He was an honorable man. In this election, he brings it up at every opportunity and when he had won his party’s nomination many months ago, he went on a “Biography Tour” in his falsely-named “Straight Talk Express” to talk about his experience as a P.O.W. in the Hanoi Hilton.
What really turned my stomach though was on Monday Night, when on the Tonight Show, Jay Leno asked him how many homes he owns. McCain’s answer: “In a moment of seriousness, I spent five and a half years in a prison cell. I didn’t have a house, I didn’t have a kitchen table — I didn’t have a table — and I didn’t have a chair. And I spent those five and a half years because; not because I wanted to get a house.”
Really? That’s your answer to a joke question? And yet, his voting record as a senator pisses on veterans. Will the real John McCain run for president! Further in that segment on The Tonight Show McCain said he was proud of his record. Well, let’s wait and see just how proud he is when — if — the press starts reporting on his record. It’s pretty dismal. He’s voted with President Bush 95% of the time.McCain did something really remarkable, or it would have been remarkable had he not been running against an African-American — or a woman, for that matter: he chose a young woman as his running mate, Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska, considered a maverick because of her hard line against some of Alaska’s old guard Republicans. She voted to raise taxes on the oil companies.
She’s also a hard-core Religious Right politician with a record that includes time with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and she adamantly opposes a woman’s right to choose and gay marriage. For the Religious base of the party, Palin is the right choice, despite being a woman.For practical purposes, she’s the right choice because he would have lost ground with voters once both conventions had ended and the real campaign began. And, he hopes, Palin will draw many of those women who supported Hillary Clinton in the primaries. That remains to be seen.
She’s only been a governor for two years, less actually, and before that a small town mayor. Will someone with so little experience, none of it in a national office, be an asset? Or, will she be John McCain’s Harriet Myers?
Harriet Ellan Miers was President Bush’s White House counsel when, in 2005, Bush submitted her name to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court, despite her not having any court room experience as either a lawyer or judge. The selection was roundly criticized from all sides and Bush finally removed her name from consideration. In January 2007, Miers resigned her post as White House Counsel after her name began appearing in the Justice Department scandal that involved hiring and firing U.S. attorneys for political reasons. She has refused to testify in front of any committees and it’s a wonder in these quarters why she hasn’t been cited for contempt of Congress.
Governor Palin is an obvious choice for McCain and the Republicans, who would like to be viewed as being progressive like the Democrats. That, on the face of it, may make that case, but once records are scrutinized, and Palin’s light record in state politics and lack of a record on the National stage is talked about, she might not be such a great asset. But she has a pretty face and that alone will win a few voters. To be honest, that was my first thought when I saw her picture: she is pretty.For me, I’ll stick with Obama who said, “For 18 long months, you have stood up, one by one, and said enough to the politics of the past. You understand that in this election, the greatest risk we can take is to try the same old politics with the same old players and expect a different result.”
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