I believe Colin Powell does a pretty good job of explaining my views on the Obama-McCain election.
I personally have a very deep respect for John McCain — not just because of his heroism on the battlefield, but because of the bipartisan role he has played in the past. I think too many liberals have gotten swept up in election year politics, forgetting that their last presidential candidate John Kerry flirted (although probably insincerely) with the idea of having McCain as a running mate and forgetting the role McCain played in brokering deals with the DNC to deal with political gridlock.
But, even so, the way the recent election has been carried out has overcome my traditional distaste for both sides of the aisle:
- Attacks on Obama have been out of line. I know McCain has set the record straight on this before, but even so, his campaign has been outrageous — Obama is not a terrorist just because he had some brief association with Bill Ayers. Obama is not a Muslim. Even if Obama were of the Islamic faith, that is neither important nor meaningful. That this is even an issue suggests to me that something is horribly wrong with the GOP.
- The nomination of Sarah Palin is absurd. There are many attacks that float around which I think are trivial. For instance, I think McCain not being familiar with the Internet (especially given that this is caused by his war injuries) or his not knowing how many homes he has to be fairly irrelevant to his ability to be a leader (I bet some of the senior Partners at my firm have no clear idea how many cars they own or what the state of their finances are in, and I know brilliant doctors who are almost completely computer illiterate). Similarly, I think Obama’s use of drugs in his childhood, his (former) membership in a church with a crazy pastor, and his lack of a military record are also irrelevant. But some of the attacks on Palin are quite disturbing:
- Rarely traveled outside of the US — this is insane. How does one expect someone a “heartbeat away from being” President, to possibly be a decent diplomat if at her age they’ve shown practically no inkling of an interest in having international experience? It’s already embarrassing enough that some of our senior military officials can’t tell Sunni from Shiite — what are we going to do with a Vice President whose claim to international understanding is bordering Russia?
- Allowed the police to charge rape victims for their own rape kits — words can’t even being to describe how ridiculous this is and how ridiculous any civil leader is for condoning a practice which treats rape kits as a cost which is not the justice system’s obligation to bear.
- Lacking in any and all credibility and experience to deal with the financial crisis, international diplomacy, national security — big issues that she won’t be able to just “hockey mom” her way out of.
These are not political arguments that I’m making. This is not about me disagreeing with McCain’s positions, as I find many of Obama’s positions equally wrong-headed. This is about common sense — how do you vote for a candidate whose party is practicing in some disgusting political practices and who nominated a woman who lacks the qualifications to even be the President’s secretary let alone his vice president.
