Who will it be?

[Sarastro]

Meet George Obama. Barack Obama's half-brother living in a Nairobi slum.

[Homo Aestheticus]

I've respected McCain for a long time and think he's a substantial improvement over the lousy options we're usually presented with in these elections. 

John McCain is a mediocrity. It occurs to me that the man is as intellectually shallow as our current president. When asked what his Christian faith means to him, his answer was a one-liner. "It means I'm saved and forgiven." Great scholars have wrestled with the meaning of faith for centuries. McCain then retold a story we've all heard a hundred times about a guard in Vietnam drawing a cross in the sand. Asked about his greatest moral failure, he cited his first marriage, which ended in divorce. While saying it was his greatest moral failing, he offered nothing in the way of explanation. He was asked "if evil exists." His response was to repeat for the umpteenth time that Osama bin Laden is a bad man and he will pursue him to "the gates of hell." That was it.He was asked to define rich. After trying to dodge the question - his wife is worth a reported $100 million - he finally said he thought an income of $5 million was rich. One after another, McCain's answers are shallow, simplistic, and trite. He showed the same intellectual curiosity that George Bush has - virtually none.

[PerfectWagnerite]

John McCain is a mediocrity. It occurs to me that the man is as intellectually shallow as our current president. When asked what his Christian faith means to him, his answer was a one-liner. "It means I'm saved and forgiven." Great scholars have wrestled with the meaning of faith for centuries. McCain then retold a story we've all heard a hundred times about a guard in Vietnam drawing a cross in the sand. Asked about his greatest moral failure, he cited his first marriage, which ended in divorce. While saying it was his greatest moral failing, he offered nothing in the way of explanation. He was asked "if evil exists." His response was to repeat for the umpteenth time that Osama bin Laden is a bad man and he will pursue him to "the gates of hell." That was it.He was asked to define rich. After trying to dodge the question - his wife is worth a reported $100 million - he finally said he thought an income of $5 million was rich. One after another, McCain's answers are shallow, simplistic, and trite. He showed the same intellectual curiosity that George Bush has - virtually none.

So what? So maybe you want a professor of arts or history at Harvard to run for president then? He is much better than the liberal weenie Harvard mouth Barack Obama who just mouths "change change change" twenty thousand times a day with nothing of substance to offer whatsoever. So McCain's wife is worth 100 million? You punish someone for being rich and successful?
McCain has done a lot more in his life than Obama. What has Obama ever done, oh he taught law right? This is the same idiot who was stupid enough to criticize Clarence Thomas, who knows infinitely more about law than Obama can dream of. And what does Obama offer you? Bigger government, more spending, the government will control more of your life, tell you what you can drive, what you can spend your $$$ on, etc.. He is so far to the left that he is tantamount to a Marxist.

[Homo Aestheticus]

So what? So maybe you want a professor of arts or history at Harvard to run for president then? He is much better than the liberal weenie Harvard mouth Barack Obama who just mouths "change change change" twenty thousand times a day with nothing of substance to offer whatsoever. So McCain's wife is worth 100 million? You punish someone for being rich and successful?
McCain has done a lot more in his life than Obama. What has Obama ever done, oh he taught law right? This is the same idiot who was stupid enough to criticize Clarence Thomas, who knows infinitely more about law than Obama can dream of. And what does Obama offer you? Bigger government, more spending, the government will control more of your life, tell you what you can drive, what you can spend your $$$ on, etc.. He is so far to the left that he is tantamount to a Marxist.

Of course he does not have to be a brilliant scholar but John McCain graduated 894th in a class of 899 at the Naval Academy at Annapolis. His father and grandfather were four star admirals in the Navy. Some have suggested that might have played a role in McCain being admitted. His academic record was awful. And it shows over and over again whenever McCain is called upon to think on his feet. He no longer allows reporters unfettered access to him aboard the "Straight Talk Express" for a reason. He simply makes too many mistakes. Unless he's reciting talking points or reading from notes or a TelePrompTer, John McCain is lost. He can drop bon mots at a bowling alley or diner - short glib responses that get a chuckle, but beyond that McCain gets in over his head very quickly.

I am sick and tired of the president of the United States embarrassing me. The world we live in is too complex to entrust it to someone else whose idea of intellectual curiosity and grasp of foreign policy issues is to tell us he can look into Vladimir Putin's eyes and see into his soul. George Bush's record as a student, military man, businessman and leader of the free world is one of constant failure. And the part that troubles me most is he seems content with himself. He will leave office with the country $10 trillion in debt, fighting two wars, our international reputation in shambles, our government cloaked in secrecy and suspicion that his entire presidency has been a litany of broken laws and promises, our citizens' faith in our own country ripped to shreds. Yet Bush goes bumbling along, grinning and spewing moronic one-liners, as though nobody understands what a colossal failure he has been. I fear McCain is just like him.

[Sarastro]

I fear McCain is...

...a matching successor. An old proverb says that a country deserves its leader. Not very true, I think; and you are right - Bush's representation in the world makes people think all Americans are like that, which is not very true either.

[M forever]

Of course he does not have to be a brilliant scholar but John McCain graduated 894th in a class of 899 at the Naval Academy at Annapolis. His father and grandfather were four star admirals in the Navy. Some have suggested that might have played a role in McCain being admitted.

Noooooooo, of course not...

Yet Bush goes bumbling along, grinning and spewing moronic one-liners, as though nobody understands what a colossal failure he has been. I fear McCain is just like him.

You may be right. He may just be another marionette, like GWB. That is why for anyone able to think from here to the wall, it is not an option to vote for him. It just isn't. He is way too close to the circles which brought you the last 8 years of disaster. The US needs as much a house cleaning in the upper levels of government as possible. That will only go so far, of course, because all politicians are corrupt and remote-controlled by idustrial and military circles. But whatever can be done, needs to be done.

I don't have such a high opinion of Obama either. But it's the highest time for a change, any change the country can get. Continuing with the same regime operating a new marionette can not be an option. It will inevitably lead this country into complete disaster (but also enrichen a small caste of well-connected people immensely while doing so, that's all they are interested in anyway).

[scarpia]

Depends upon the accommodation.  The housing deal and the way he's used then jettisoned Wright suggest he's much less savory than he presents at first glance.

The closest thing I have found to an allegation in "the housing deal" is that Obama might have paid below market price when he bought a parcel of land from Rezko which increased the size of his yard.  Maybe Rezko wanted to curry Obama's favor, maybe he was just strapped for cash, maybe it was a fair price afterall.   The sum of money involved was small and there is no actual evidence that Obama was concerned with anything other than having a bigger yard.

Obama's repeated lies about McCain and his positions should have already cost him the respect of every thoughtful person who at first took him at face value and hoped for something better from him.  Of course, it was relatively easy for him to appear to occupy the moral high ground when his primary rival was Clinton.

I am not aware of any "lies" that Obama has told about McCain. 

[Don]

So what? So maybe you want a professor of arts or history at Harvard to run for president then? He is much better than the liberal weenie Harvard mouth Barack Obama who just mouths "change change change" twenty thousand times a day with nothing of substance to offer whatsoever. So McCain's wife is worth 100 million? You punish someone for being rich and successful?

Let's get real and not equate wealth with accomplishment.  McCain is very rich because he married Cindy who is very rich because she was born into that situation. 

[Sarastro]

But it's the highest time for a change, any change the country can get. Continuing with the same regime operating a new marionette can not be an option. It will inevitably lead this country into complete disaster .

Oh, but you can return to Germany any time you want. Don't worry, hon. After what you've written:

Yes Q, in the United States, it is all about winners and losers. Most people are losers, big, big, big time. Some are still losers, but not so much, and there is an entire, gigantic industry catering to them so they can at least pretend to be not as much losers as they really are. Why do you think this is such an anti-social, aggressive, paranoid society here? Why is this the country with by far the most prison inmates per capita in the world?

and some other things in such style, I assume all you say to pretend to be a nice guy is quite hypocritical. The only thing I can't understand is why you still live here, even tough you hate the US so much.

[Brian]

My own state's junior senator, Evan Bayh, benefits from Indiana's weird love affair with him (which goes back to his father); Indiana hasn't gone Democratic since Lyndon Johnson last ran (and, to tell you even more, I think Indiana only voted for Franklin Roosevelt twice).

Those 11 electoral votes resting so gently in the Hoosier State could make a difference in a tight race (e.g., 2000), and the electorate's love for Bayh could have made those 11 votes an easy target for the Man of Hope and Glory. Should it have been Bayh? Well, no, but that's a personal thing.

I don't get all this talk about Indiana loving Bayh. I never met that many people who did. Is it maybe that Bartholomew County (my home) didn't like him and the other 91 counties did? Or something?

[Brian]

John McCain is a mediocrity. It occurs to me that the man is as intellectually shallow as our current president. When asked what his Christian faith means to him, his answer was a one-liner. "It means I'm saved and forgiven." Great scholars have wrestled with the meaning of faith for centuries.

Frankly, if Bush has taught us anything, it is that we do NOT need a President deeply in touch with his faith.

[PSmith08]

I don't get all this talk about Indiana loving Bayh. I never met that many people who did. Is it maybe that Bartholomew County (my home) didn't like him and the other 91 counties did? Or something?

I don't know, we elected him secretary of state in 1986, governor in 1988 and 1992, and senator in 1998 and 2004. To put it another way, Evan Bayh has been winning statewide elections as a Democrat in a pretty solidly Republican state as long as I have been alive.

Looking at the breakdowns, Bayh hasn't won an election with less than 50% since 1986 and has been on the sunny side of 60% since 1992. That's pretty impressive for a state that last went Democratic for a presidential election in 1964. In 2004, for the most recent (well, only) dual example, John Kerry only took four counties: Marion, Monroe, Lake, and LaPorte (with the last one being a 49.6%-to-49.1% victory for Kerry). In contrast, Marvin Scott, Bayh's challenger in 2004, only took six counties (Jasper, Kosciusko, Boone, Hendricks, Hamilton, and Dearborn). It's also worth noting that, as you know (though others might not) Boone, Hendricks, and Hamilton Counties are suburban collar counties around Indianapolis. So Scott did well in the conservative areas around Indianapolis with a few weird outliers way up north and over by Cincinnati. Bayh did well everywhere else, even as Bush was trouncing Kerry.

I'm no great fan of Evan Bayh, but it looks like a lot of folks in Indiana are (at least the folks who vote, crossing party lines to do so in a non-trivial number of cases).

[ezodisy]

Serious question (not taking the piss): is John McCain as much of a warmonger as he's portrayed in some left-wing articles and video clip compilations?

[DavidRoss]

Serious question (not taking the piss): is John McCain as much of a warmonger as he's portrayed in some left-wing articles and video clip compilations?

John McCain is not a warmonger at all.  Those who portray him as such are either complete idiots or malicious liars. 

[Homo Aestheticus]

John McCain is not a warmonger at all. 

McCain is not a warmonger at all ? Are you sure about that ?

Have you viewed this:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-caYFdnUCY

 

[knight66]

That does not seem conclusive, a small segment where he indicates there will be other wars.....it is very vague, nothing warmongering about it, he is not threatening and going by history, there will be wars, there always are and the world stage being as it is, the likelihood is that the US would be involved one way or another.

This is not a threat to start more wars.

Mike

[DavidRoss]

John McCain is a mediocrity. It occurs to me that the man is as intellectually shallow as our current president. When asked what his Christian faith means to him, his answer was a one-liner. "It means I'm saved and forgiven." Great scholars have wrestled with the meaning of faith for centuries. McCain then retold a story we've all heard a hundred times about a guard in Vietnam drawing a cross in the sand. Asked about his greatest moral failure, he cited his first marriage, which ended in divorce. While saying it was his greatest moral failing, he offered nothing in the way of explanation. He was asked "if evil exists." His response was to repeat for the umpteenth time that Osama bin Laden is a bad man and he will pursue him to "the gates of hell." That was it.He was asked to define rich. After trying to dodge the question - his wife is worth a reported $100 million - he finally said he thought an income of $5 million was rich. One after another, McCain's answers are shallow, simplistic, and trite. He showed the same intellectual curiosity that George Bush has - virtually none.

Dear Homo:

What's "shallow, simplistic, and trite" is your understanding of the nature of things—not surprising, I suppose, since your rhetoric in the post quoted above and the one that followed it suggests that you are deeply bigoted and thus by definition unwilling or unable to look beneath the surface of your narrow and distorted world view.

If you develop a real interest in learning and are able to open your mind enough to make it possible, you will eventually discover that intelligence and glibness are two different things, as are intelligence and one's report card in school.  If you are bright enough and persistent enough, you will also learn that "intelligence" is highly over-rated, mostly by those who are slightly more clever than average but not nearly smart enough to understand just how dumb they really are.

Honor, integrity, responsibility, creativity, vision, humility, practicality, clarity, common sense, and especially wisdom are far more valuable qualities in a leader than willingness to parrot a teacher's lessons for a mark in a grade book, or to say whatever the media wants to hear to earn a pat on the head and a vote from the ignorant.

In a long public career, John McCain has distinguished himself as a mensch among vultures.  He's no Churchill, I'll grant you, but damned few folks of Churchill's stature ever run for public office, and if his times had not been so desperate, Churchill would never have been selected to lead, for he was regarded by the short-sighted bigots of his day much as you now regard McCain—and Bush, too.  And though Bush has fallen far short of all that we might have hoped for, I think that if you live long enough you will find that history judges him to have been a much better President in these times than you are presently able to imagine.

FYI, I wanted to believe in Obama, in spite of his horrifying voting record, hoping that he was just a bit naive and could grow into leadership, and hoping that the qualities of forthrightness and integrity that he projects were genuine.  I now believe I was too optimistic, but still hope that, if elected, the symbolic power of an African-American President may at least promote enough spiritual healing for our nation to outweigh the foreseeable mischief that an extremely liberal executive together with a Democratic Congress will probably create.

Finally, I watched the video clip you linked to above.  I am hard pressed to imagine how anyone could in good faith interpret his acknowledgment of a bitter truth—that there will be more wars--as evidence of "warmongering." 

[Brian]

I don't know, we elected him secretary of state in 1986, governor in 1988 and 1992, and senator in 1998 and 2004. To put it another way, Evan Bayh has been winning statewide elections as a Democrat in a pretty solidly Republican state as long as I have been alive.

Looking at the breakdowns, Bayh hasn't won an election with less than 50% since 1986 and has been on the sunny side of 60% since 1992. That's pretty impressive for a state that last went Democratic for a presidential election in 1964. In 2004, for the most recent (well, only) dual example, John Kerry only took four counties: Marion, Monroe, Lake, and LaPorte (with the last one being a 49.6%-to-49.1% victory for Kerry). In contrast, Marvin Scott, Bayh's challenger in 2004, only took six counties (Jasper, Kosciusko, Boone, Hendricks, Hamilton, and Dearborn). It's also worth noting that, as you know (though others might not) Boone, Hendricks, and Hamilton Counties are suburban collar counties around Indianapolis. So Scott did well in the conservative areas around Indianapolis with a few weird outliers way up north and over by Cincinnati. Bayh did well everywhere else, even as Bush was trouncing Kerry.

I'm no great fan of Evan Bayh, but it looks like a lot of folks in Indiana are (at least the folks who vote, crossing party lines to do so in a non-trivial number of cases).

Interesting, I guess so. We're a weird state.  Thanks.

[Brian]

Serious question (not taking the piss): is John McCain as much of a warmonger as he's portrayed in some left-wing articles and video clip compilations?

Not really. Here's a man who has seen more than enough war himself, and whose son is busy fighting our wars at the moment. The impression I get is of a man determined to finish what we've already started. Recently he and Obama have been saying surprisingly similar things about leaving Iraq in good time and responsibly.

"Bomb Iran", the left's favorite scary clip, is an old Capitol Steps tune, if I remember correctly, and McCain's sense of humor has always been off-color (ie, "The good thing about having Alzheimer's is that you get to hide your own Easter eggs").

[Lilas Pastia]

I think one of the President's greatest challenges - and accomplishments - is to surround himself with solid, experienced and bright people working cohesively as a team. Analysing only the character traits of a person will always reveal real or perceived failures. And all of those are from something dug out in the past.

I believe that the best man will be the one willing to, and capable of working with such a team. Of course it will help if he has charisma. This is a hard to assess quality, but I believe Obama has it. McCain seems too much out of sorts when faced with complex issues. And he has nothing to decide yet...