More musings on my vote.

Well, I have to give Barack Obama much credit. He, and his campaign, have not made any mistakes here recently. They do not take any risks at all, they have a huge lead, and they are protecting it at all costs. This guy is a media darling, his campaign knows value of high production moments, and the guy delivers a speech like I’ve never seen before. I hope that this guy will be our Kennedy, Lincoln, Churchill, etc. He needs to be the guy that can inspire a nation.

He is my fear; he’ll be Bill Clinton, Part II, The Big Disappointment Strikes Back. Bill Clinton had great promise, and his presidency went well because he always did the most popular thing. Bill Clinton came into the Whitehouse with great promise. He was going to be the guy who transformed America and recaptured her glory. But, alas, instead of being the Democratic Ronald Regan, he became the divisive catalyst that polarized American politics. Clinton became the poison he was, I think; because he stood for nothing but what was most popular. Sure, he was left of center most of the time; but he was whatever was most politically convenient. He had convenient women, he lied about them when it was convenient; he loved the poor and oppressed, but let them die when it was convenient (Rwanda, anyone?); he compromised his stated values when it became necessary to improve his position.

So far, I’ve seen Obama tack to the center, and maybe that’s okay. Most candidates, Republican and Democrat, must pander to their respective party’s more hardcore constituents to gain the nomination, because it is these cooks who vote in primaries, and these hardcore constituents tend to be much further from the center. So, I’m giving Obama a pass. Maybe he is more main stream, or maybe he is more left-wing; but either way, he is moving his position to gain the election. Such is necessary, to some degree, from any candidate.

But here is the deal: when will Obama state his true values; and, when it be politically inconvenient for him to stand by those ideals, will he stand steadfast to them? Since I don’t know this about Obama, I still favor McCain.

Another thing I haven’t seen, is how does Obama do in non-scripted moments? When he has a teleprompter, can control the topics, and has a high production value situation: there are none better. What happens when he is under pressure and dealing with the un-known? Will he still be Obama the orator, or a befuddled, stammering mess? Can he defend his policy plans, or will he implode like he did with the capital gain tax revenue questioning? McCain’s not the greatest, but he deals and adapts well. This is another reason from me to stay with McCain.

One thing that is interesting, now that high gas prices have curbed our consumption, and politicians have started to talk about making real, hard decisions to end out dependence on foreign oil, crude prices have started to fall. I just hope that two things happen: 1) we actually carry out most of these plans, and, 2) I hope gas prices fall.

Later,

B