I’ve made it pretty clear in the past who I am supporting in the current election and who I will be voting for but I haven’t written anything on the election for a while.  With Obama officially winning the nomination on the Democratic side and McCain naming Sarah Palin his running mate I figured it was a good time to check in.  So here are a few thoughts in no real order. . .

Biden – My opinion of him can be summed up thus, “at least he’s not Hillary.”  Frankly, while he has a bit of a brain/mouth filter problem that could lead to a few embarrassing moments, I don’t think he’s really a bad choice, he doesn’t hurt Obama at all.  If Obama had picked Hillary, that would have been a deal breaker.  Fortunately, that had the proverbial snowballs chance.

Convention speech – They wanted a spectacle and they got it.  Fireworks and a packed house at Invesco made for a pretty impressive showing this last week for Obama’s acceptance speech.  I don’t care if it is a sappy sentimental play, I eat up all that unity stuff.  I love that Obama was talking about the myth of Red America and Blue America and that Republicans are patriotic and Democrats want to sell out the country.  It’s stupid.  As much as I can’t stand Hillary, think Kusinich is a nut job, and laughed at anyone who thought Ron Paul was ever a legitimate candidate, I never once question the commitment of those people to our nation.  We have spent the last 8 years drawing lines in the sand and dividing the country between left and right we have lost focus on actually solving problems the country is facing.  Why does, for example, Pro-Life simply mean Anti-Abortion?  I’m with Obama, lets leave that debate for another day and focus on reducing teen pregnancy and unwanted pregnancy rates.  Lets stop fighting about how we got into Iraq and focus on getting out and finishing the fight in Afghanistan.

My Buddy – I don’t understand why so much attention is being paid to which candidate sympathizes with the “little guy” better.  I don’t care who would be more fun to have a beer and watch a game with.  I’m not interested in having a beer with the President.  I’m interested in a President who is wiser and smarter than I am because he controls the worlds largest nuclear arsenal.  I tried to dig out an old West Wing clip on this but couldn’t track it down (though not for lack of trying, YouTube is ruining my sleep patterns).  It is what I refer to as the “Surgeon Argument.” If you had life threatening cancer, would you rather have a surgeon who is an ass but has a 100% cure rate or a surgeon who is your good buddy but known for being a little bit of a klutz?

Sarah Palin – When McCain picked Palin as his veep he ensured a historic election no matter the winner.  Unfortunately, I think he’s going to end up regretting the decision.  I do think Palin is a better pick than Mitt Romney and she is definitely more palitable than Hillary as a woman in politics.  She also runs circles around Leiberman in the personality category.  However, picking a candidate for her strong history of ethics reform usually works better when that candidate isn’t herself in the middle of an ethics investigation.  Palin is currently the subject of a probe in Alaska to find if she orchestrated the dismissal of the State Police Commissioner after he refused to fire Palin’s former brother-in-law (who is currently involved in a custody battle with Palin’s sister after their divorce).  I like the little I know of Palin and think she is the kind of woman who, with a little more exposure/experience, could have had a chance at being a legitimate candidate (certainly women are capable of leading a nation, it’s just going to take a special candidate to break through).  Palin is too easy of a target for the left to tear appart though.  If she hadn’t been so involved and tied to the Bush presidency, I actually think Conoliza Rice wouldn’t have been a bad choice

I’m sure in the coming weeks, I will no doubt have more to say.  Especially now that summer is over and I have time to think about some of these things.  Anyway, anyone else have any thoughts on the above?

Filed under: life by Jonathan