This is actually very difficult for me to announce. First when I see public figures, I see real people on TV. I see humans with hearts, with desires to do the very best they can. As such, it is hard for me to be critical about them. Nonetheless, I am very skeptical of what people say when they are seeking something that is highly coveted by many (i.e. the US Presidency). In a race of such public interest as for US President, each candidate knows that everything they say will be used against them in every opportunity that is presented to the opposition. Accordingly, they avoid candor. They and their highly skilled teams work diligently as selecting what information they will share and how they will share it. When challenged, they strive to work around the question. If pressed, they may very easily lie hoping to calm the situation just long enough to get their results and apologize down the road when they can no longer deny it.
Working against these strategic power houses is the media and such that are striving to uncover, as Paul Harvey would say it, “…The rest of the story.” However, in spite of the media’s best efforts, I believe that most people are swindled into only hearing what a candidate and campaign want them to hear. There seems to be a momentum that builds, almost a synergy that leads Americans down a yellow brick road. Energy, social security, economy, terrorism, health care, foreign policy… The list goes on. How many people have thought about Russia and Georgia in the past two weeks? How many people have thought about gay marriage in the past two weeks? How many people have thought about North Korea in the past two weeks? I am not saying that these are the most important issues to address or that the first mentioned topics are not important. But can you see how melodramatic we can be as a nation? I remember the storm surrounding a stock market meltdown sometime around 1998. I remember that people were freaking out, as with the economic fallout of September 11, 2001.
I digress. My point is that I do not jump out and support a candidate until he/she has met MY PERSONAL QUALIFICATIONS. I need time to filter through the noise and the rhetoric. I now feel like I have done so to the best of my ability and am ready to state that John McCain is the best most electable candidate for US President 2009-2012.
In comparing our electable presidential candidates I have found the following to be the most significant in my selection process.
(1) The first basic difference in the candidates that I detected is their leadership focus. Sen. McCain desires to lead Congress and Sen. Obama desires to lead the people. This is not too hard to see by comparing their backgrounds.
As a long time Senator, John McCain knows well the workings of congress. To me, he appears appalled by the waste, greed, corruption and lack of service to the American People that exists in congress. He is passionate about ensuring that the learned priestcraft style leadership be uprooted and thrown into the fire as tares amongst the wheat.
From Sen. Obama’s Senator’s web page I extracted the following “Barack Obama has dedicated his life to public service as a community organizer, civil rights attorney, and leader in the Illinois state Senate” (http://obama.senate.gov/about/ Extracted Oct 7, 2008). His heart, his passion is working with people and fighting for them the fights that they cannot fight on their own. I can see that as president, he hopes to use his position to continue these fights.
My outlook is that Sen. Obama can best serve the American people from congress at this time. He has the charisma to motivate his constituents to action and I hope he continues to do so as a US Senator. I believe that If elected president, Sen. Obama will use his position to place into law bills that are targeted at cradling the American people, specifically those whom he feels are misfortunate and unable to fight on their own. Sen. McCain, on the other hand, will use his position to regulate congress, truly the most powerful branch in our government. It is my firm belief that Sen. McCain will have more success than any president in the past at keeping congress in check with balanced power. This will ensure that not only is our president listening to us, but our representatives and senators as well.
(2) The second issue I take is how clearly and detailed each candidate sees their success in the white house. An example is the budgets. During the third interview, both candidates tiptoed around the direct questions “What plans would you cut?” with rhetoric of scalpels, hatchets, and WMD’s. Okay, I made that last one up myself.
When pressed, Sen. McCain began listing very specific funding cuts that he wants to make. Do you have ANY idea the retaliation he set himself up for? In a time of financial crisis and unemployment concerns, Sen. McCain basically said “I’m going to layoff a whole bunch of people” and identified which people he wanted to layoff. I was not impressed with McCain ineptness that night, but that response did it for me.
Sen. Obama stuck to his guns that there needs to be an item by item, or line by line review of the budget. Next, figure out which programs are worthless, which need more money, which need reform and which do not need so much money. You would think that if someone is really passionate about how to balance the budget they would already have a good idea of where to start.
(3) On the issue of balancing the budget, this is always a concern for me regardless of nuclear devises at my front step or murders and rapist in my neighborhood. If we are going to handle any issue in the long run, we must fiscally plan for it as well as tactically plan for it. Sen. Obama appears to be too happy to appease his friends in Washington. As the new kid on the block I do not believe he has the intestinal fortitude to stand up to his party and say “enough.” There are a lot of welfare/socialist plans he wants to implement and will oblige fellow democrats in their return demands. There will simply not be enough of a check on spending.
Sen. McCain will be in opposition to much of congress and will have a far more difficult time getting the money he wants where he wants it. There will have to be a lot of compromise and sacrifice in spending. There will also be a lot of room for many to take personal and party credit for balancing the budget.
(4) Final issue for the moment is Political Power. Basically, I think Sen. McCain has it and Sen. Obama is still building it. Give Obama another four years to build his ties and show himself for whom he is. Then let’s reconsider him for president. In the meantime, I can trust Sen. McCain to get done what he wants done and I can see that what he wants done is what I want done.
In closing, these are just a few quick points that I have been able to write down without having to provide substantial citations. In later posts I would love to really pull out some more information and expose both candidates better, timer permitting. I hope this information was clear, concise, and complete enough to express my thoughts in a meaningful manner. As President of the United States of America, Senator John McCain will lead our nation in a direction that we can be proud of. There will be many who staunchly disagree with Sen. McCain’s policies, but we will see that the nation is in a far better position to allow more within and without its borders great life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
John McCain, President of the United States of America 2009-2012.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Presidential Debates: October 7, 2008
The most striking question for me in the October 7 debate was an internet question:
Sen. McCain, for you, we have our first question from the Internet tonight. A child of the Depression, 78-year-old Fiorra from Chicago.
Since World War II, we have never been asked to sacrifice anything to help our country, except the blood of our heroic men and women. As president, what sacrifices -- sacrifices will you ask every American to make to help restore the American dream and to get out of the economic morass that we're now in? (http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/07/presidential.debate.transcript/)
I enjoyed Senator McCain’s take that as Americans we will have to come together to say “ENOUGH with spending what we do not have“ and make the sacrifices to go without or with reduction of many programs and services that we have enjoyed up to this time. His return resolve was for government to openly address which programs are vital, which need more funding, which are being wasteful and which we can do without. He had the courage to say that there will be painful cuts, but that through setting better priorities we will be able to meet the absolute needs of Americans and resolve the most pressing problems while balancing the budget.
Senator Obama addressed that “the American people are hungry for the kind of leadership that is going to tackle these problems.” It appears to me that Senator Obama sees his role as president to be involved with the people and leading their lives more so then what I have historically seen as a role of leading congress and international alliances. His answer did not seems as direct, but his message was clear that he envisions himself trying to direct the affairs of individual Americans.
To compare: Each candidate is willing to recognize that they need to get Americans on board with their plans to improve this nation. They see the issues at hand and know that we can solve all the problems, so long as we are not making up new problems as we go.
To contrast: Senator Obama intends to lead the people directly, to motivate them to action and I suspect he hopes this turns into change in congress as their constituents begin demanding certain actions. Sounds like a true revolutionary. Senator McCain, on the other hands, tends to lean towards serving the people through policy change in congress, targeting specific legislation to clean out the corruption and to ensure that the American people have a voice through congress.
It appears that these differences are inherent with their distinctive backgrounds. Senator McCain’s extensive background in congress has prepared him to work with congress and identify the problems and obstacles there. Senator Obama, on the other hand, is experienced with working directly with people, motivating them to a cause.
Personally, I would sooner trust Senator McCain to achieve his, and hopefully our, purposes because of the need to work with congress and others throughout government to make it happen. Senator Obama, would likely better benefit the American people on a personal level assisting in communities.
Following through with the concept of "what do American's need to sacrifice?" I have devised the following. Follow the prophets. It may be difficult to encourage the entire nation to follow the guidance of the prophets on a spiritual level. However, convincing the American people to follow the prophets on a temporal level just might work out. Specifically, if Americans are serious about sacrificing to serve their nation they will avoid debt, seek an education, live within their means, build an emergency cash fund, start food storage and other emergency preparations, and prepare for future financial independence (i.e. retirement).
Sen. McCain, for you, we have our first question from the Internet tonight. A child of the Depression, 78-year-old Fiorra from Chicago.
Since World War II, we have never been asked to sacrifice anything to help our country, except the blood of our heroic men and women. As president, what sacrifices -- sacrifices will you ask every American to make to help restore the American dream and to get out of the economic morass that we're now in? (http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/07/presidential.debate.transcript/)
I enjoyed Senator McCain’s take that as Americans we will have to come together to say “ENOUGH with spending what we do not have“ and make the sacrifices to go without or with reduction of many programs and services that we have enjoyed up to this time. His return resolve was for government to openly address which programs are vital, which need more funding, which are being wasteful and which we can do without. He had the courage to say that there will be painful cuts, but that through setting better priorities we will be able to meet the absolute needs of Americans and resolve the most pressing problems while balancing the budget.
Senator Obama addressed that “the American people are hungry for the kind of leadership that is going to tackle these problems.” It appears to me that Senator Obama sees his role as president to be involved with the people and leading their lives more so then what I have historically seen as a role of leading congress and international alliances. His answer did not seems as direct, but his message was clear that he envisions himself trying to direct the affairs of individual Americans.
To compare: Each candidate is willing to recognize that they need to get Americans on board with their plans to improve this nation. They see the issues at hand and know that we can solve all the problems, so long as we are not making up new problems as we go.
To contrast: Senator Obama intends to lead the people directly, to motivate them to action and I suspect he hopes this turns into change in congress as their constituents begin demanding certain actions. Sounds like a true revolutionary. Senator McCain, on the other hands, tends to lean towards serving the people through policy change in congress, targeting specific legislation to clean out the corruption and to ensure that the American people have a voice through congress.
It appears that these differences are inherent with their distinctive backgrounds. Senator McCain’s extensive background in congress has prepared him to work with congress and identify the problems and obstacles there. Senator Obama, on the other hand, is experienced with working directly with people, motivating them to a cause.
Personally, I would sooner trust Senator McCain to achieve his, and hopefully our, purposes because of the need to work with congress and others throughout government to make it happen. Senator Obama, would likely better benefit the American people on a personal level assisting in communities.
Following through with the concept of "what do American's need to sacrifice?" I have devised the following. Follow the prophets. It may be difficult to encourage the entire nation to follow the guidance of the prophets on a spiritual level. However, convincing the American people to follow the prophets on a temporal level just might work out. Specifically, if Americans are serious about sacrificing to serve their nation they will avoid debt, seek an education, live within their means, build an emergency cash fund, start food storage and other emergency preparations, and prepare for future financial independence (i.e. retirement).
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