Friday, September 05, 2008

Pressure Cookers and a Race Boiled Down

From a reader at Andrew Sullivan's...
[...] One benefit of this long campaign is that it really does show a person's character. And I realized. We have two men running for president right now. One has stayed true to himself throughout despite all the pressure. The other really hasn't or maybe we've just seen what he really was all along.

Obama said at the outset that he wanted a civil campaign on the issues. He said he would avoid the politics of person destruction. He demanded a cool, no drama organization -- much like himself.

He organized a strong team. Set clear goals. Adopted a sound plan and stuck to it. Reasoned, careful. Solid judgment. And in the intense glare of things like Wright and flags pins, he stuck to it all. Above all, Obama really has stayed true to who he is.

McCain on the other hand, despite his calls for a civil campaign, injected personal attacks. He cosied up to the same religious extremist he once decried. People like Hagee. And when that wasn't enough, he brought onto the ticket a evangelical with extreme views on abortion, contraception and sex education -- positions well to the right of most of the people in the Republican Party. And he hired the same polarizing, no-holds-barred political assassins that George Bush unleashed on America and McCain himself.

Senator McCain didn't stay true to himself. He morphed into a right-wing, polarizing ideologue campaign. And why? On the one hand, he's ambivalent about his ambitions, but often he'll lose sight of his values and overreach for the sake of those ambitions. In other words, he falls victim to the allure of power and loses his good judgment. He doesn't stay true to himself.

I dearly hope American's will come to appreciate this about these two men. One has stayed true to the better angels of his nature. One succumbed to the darker angels of his. Which one would make a better president in these sad and trying times?

These facts are so plainly obvious, yet never pointed out in the mainstream.

Last night, McCain pivoted from the blistering attacks of the previous evening and played the role (for the most part) of the kindly old veteran telling tales on a porch swing. He is hoping to prop up the illusion of his Maverick™ and serious statesman image. I hope people wake up and stop falling for it...Too bad I have such little faith in the media and even less in the electorate.

4 comments:

Heather said...

Did you watch the Daily Show this week? The archivists and Jon Stewart really outdid themselves; showcasing how much McCain has morphed. It was awesome, but at the same time, why isn't the mainstream media doing the same thing? Why aren't they pulling out previous statements of his that are direct contradictions?

Missives From Suburbia said...

I'm trying not to panic, but the latest polls have me on edge. I'm comforted by the fact that there is a lot of time between now and the election (time in election years, anyway, which seem something like dog years), and plenty of opportunity for things to go awry.

I will say that despite McCain's voting record and convenient political pivoting on the issues, he isn't truly George Bush. Sarah Palin, on the other hand, is the female W in the flesh. Values, beliefs that God is guiding us into places like Iraq to do His bidding, and her untested, unproven background echoes eerily of the same resume and value system that W brought with him as governor of Texas.

Did I mention I'm afraid?

Mr Furious said...

I don't remember where I read it, but somebody described this McCain/Palin ticket as Bush?Cheney in reverse...

Old, established DC heavyweight with military bent combined with young(er), born-again, vague record, governor of an oil-rich state...

THAT worked out SO well the last time...

Missives From Suburbia said...

Oooh... interesting comparison. Wow. Way to keep me awake at night, Mr. F.