Does John McCain realize that his own excessively misleading rhetoric is at least partly to blame for the frightening ideas his campaign-appearance crowds seem to have embraced? If he does, his chastising those crowds (to boos, no less) yesterday was not only too little, too late, but hypocritical. So much for the integrity we ought to expect in our leaders. If he does not realize it, he lacks the clear perception and judgment to be president. Either way, he has no business becoming the so-called leader of the free world.
He has boxed himself quite neatly into a no win situation--in his attempts to curry favor with the rabid right wing of the GOP, he's unleashed the truly wild-eyed fringe elements. Even so, he has not succeeded in placating the rabid right wing, talk-radio crowd of his own party.
Worse, he's now damaged what little credibility he might have gained with them by telling them yesterday to rein it in and be respectful, and that not only is Barack Obama no Arab, he IS a good and decent family man, someone who we need not fear occupying the Oval Office.
And he's lost whatever good will might have remained among the more center-to-left voters who'd at least have tolerated his election and tried to work with him should he in fact win the presidency.
I really do welcome his decency in trying to tamp down the more excessive untruths his crowds have embraced--that's the John McCain I remember from 2000. That's the man I could accept in the Oval Office should Obama lose, except for Sarah Palin's then being only one heartbeat away from the presidency. She is not only not ready, she lacks the temperament to get ready. She's another one of those "don't confuse me with the facts; I've made up my mind" people. They are dangerous, as the incomprehensibly stupid "leadership" we've had for the last 8 years has demonstrated. [It's the only thing at which they've excelled.--Ed.] The real world has absolutely NO interest in conforming to our expectations. The sooner the people we have in our highest offices realize that, the sooner we can rehabilitate our standing as the leader of the world community.
The problem is this: McCain's behavior during this entire campaign has been so erratic and self-contradictory that there are no guarantees that the decent McCain would be the one in charge, should he win the election. I, for one, cannot live with that uncertainty.
I think the vast majority of Americans who take the time to think about things would overwhelmingly vote for Obama . . . except for the "race thing." I heard one of Obama's advisers on NPR earlier this week claiming there was no racial issue or problem at all affecting the campaign, but let's get real. What else could he say? At this point in the campaign, the goal is to persuade the undecided not just to vote, but to vote for "your guy." The minute anyone connected to Obama suggests that race might play an issue in people NOT supporting Obama, all the people who have been hurt enough by the economic meltdown to consider voting for Obama, but who hesitate because of their own racially-related preconceptions, will abandon the idea of voting for Obama. Why? Because even hinting that race is an issue or a problem is tantamount, in those people's minds, to calling them racists. Even if they are, they're going to resent it to the point that no matter how bad the economy gets, Obama will have lost their votes.
This is not unlike those who have already been hurt badly (and for years) by GOP economic policies, but who will never vote for Democrats because those voters are "pro-life," unlike those nasty, baby-killing liberals. They vote against their own best interests because they nobly, although naively, think other issues matter more. The one thing they've not grasped is that for the first 6 years of the Dubya administration, the GOP could have legislated Roe v. Wade out of existence if it had wanted to do so. Doing that, however, would cost the GOP a wedge issue that has proved to be magic in getting them into and thus keeping power. That's what the GOP cares about, not the rights of the unborn. Or else Roe v. Wade would already be legislated out of existence.
One of the worst failures of our educational system is that all too often, it does not teach students HOW to think. No school should be responsible for teaching students WHAT to think--that's the job of parents and churches. Knowing HOW to think, however, is essential to survival in the real world, and that is an ideal task for educators. Alas for us, it's virtually impossible to do that while being overwhelmed by wildfires such as coping with students who come to class not ready to learn.
It's not just our physical infrastructure that's falling apart. Our educational system is coming apart at the seams, our health care system is broken, and a stable (financially and emotionally) middle class, the bulwark of every successful society in history, is being squeezed out of existence. America, as I know, love, and understand her, is disappearing before our eyes. Something has to give . . . and for the sake of both America and the world, I hope that what retreats is all the old and untrue racially-based canards that have infected our country for centuries. We need to vote for hope, not for fear, if we are to reclaim America's position as the real moral authority and voice of freedom for the whole world.
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