Part of it is the mountain of projects at work.
Part is the mountain of projects in my business.
Part of it is the mountain of projects at home.
Part of it is my stupid computer fighting me every time I try to do ANYTHING on it!
But, a huge part is my obsession with the presidential election.
Now, I get a pretty worked up at every election, but there is something very different about this one for me. I truly see a shining ray of hope for America.
Going into this election, after the primaries, I wasn't that interested. I didn't know that much about Obama, but many people that I respected seem to like him; and I had always not only liked McCain, I admired him. In fact, I thought what Bush did to McCain and his obvious heroic record was not only shameless -- it was EVIL!! I appreciated McCain for sticking to the high ground during that primary, even if it resulted in his not getting the nomination. I felt that this election appeared to be a win-win. And when he nominated Sarah Palin, I thought, well now it really is a win-win-win situation. I thought either Obama or McCain would probably make a good president, and if Obama won he would be the first black president, and if McCain won, she would be the first woman vice president.
Then the winds of change blew in.
Over the course of the weeks following the conventions, I learned more about everyone; and I have to tell you -- I became increasing concerned about the welfare of this country. It went from being a fairly even choice to an inspiration vs instigation run for the White House.
Little by little that admirable exterior that McCain held was chipped away as he sold it for his chance to finally realize his life-long dream of being President. He did show signs of resistance along the way. Don't feel that I thought he went down without a fight. But ultimately he has been reduced to a grinning puppet for the RNC/GOP.
And Sarah Palin? Not a win. The more she has shown of herself, the more concerned I have become about the future of the country. I had a renter like her -- delusions of grandeur. "Yeah, so I was wondering if I could build a sunroom off the back of the house." I highly doubt it, and ABSOLUTELY NOT! Although I appreciate the self confidence that it must take to truly think that you are totally capable of easily accomplishing things that you really know nothing about, I have much greater appreciation for people who know themselves well enough and are honest with themselves and others enough to say, "Sorry, not my forte." Seriously, if it's not an outrageously inflated sense of abilities then it must be that she has such a low opinion of what it takes to run America that she would think that living close to Russia and signing some payroll checks would more than qualify her for the job. Either way -- not good.
And as she got more and more confident, she became more and more concerning. She is stabbing McCain in the back on many issues which has him back-peddling to keep some semblance of continuity in the party. And the way she leads a rally is alarming. The RNC calls it rallying their base -- they're base alright, and she knows just how to play them. Fear will lead them, and she is a great horror story teller. She certainly scares the hell out of me!
As far as McCain goes, you can clearly see that this is a bit alarming to him as well. He has had the decency to scold his own crowd when they have gone overboard and were getting out of control. I commend him for that, but I have to say, I haven't seen much of it lately. He is a man unsure of which path to take. It is clear he is not comfortable (or at least, was not comfortable) with the things that Palin had been stirring up in people. But the "maverick" seems afraid of taking control of his own campaign. His indecisiveness and conflict with his own campaign make him appear erratic and at times more than a wee bit senile. Not a good projection when you are trying to convince people that you are steady with all the answers. He can't even figure out his own campaign!
Then there is Obama. The only thing that I knew about Obama as this race started was that he had easily won in Illinois due to some scandals with the other candidates and that he had somehow pulled a victory from sure-thing Clinton. I was actually upset because I had enjoyed the Clinton years and was all ready for another round. I was not ready to accept Obama, for sure.
Then I heard him speak.
He really is an inspirational figure. He has the ability to talk about real problems that we face without sounding negative; which is a problem that has plagued many Democratic presidential nominees. He makes you feel like there is hope and that we are great, without pandering to you or blowing smoke up your ass. He uses inclusion instead of division to get support for his ideas. I truly feel that he has the ability to bring us together in unity to solve problems that we face today. And I get a strong sense of intelligence, fairness, humanity, discipline and toughness from him. Plus, he is one cool dude!
His running mate, Joe Biden, is a great Robin to his Batman, too. Very knowledgeable, a little goofy, unintelligible at times, but his heart is definitely in the right place. And he really, truly supports Obama.
But what is even better than having such an awesome person running for president is the fact that despite the RNC's best efforts to discredit him, America recognizes Obama's greatness too. Hope lives. But although Obama does have a comfortable lead in most polls, I can not rest easy knowing that anything could happen in the next week. SSB and I have already volunteered to drive people to the polls, and we are planning to canvass next week -- something that I have NEVER considered doing in the past!
And although I do lean Democrat, it is important to note that I am an independent and I do not always vote Democrat. I supported Ross Perot and Ralph Nadar (a personal hero of mine), not to mention Tommy Thompson (before he stuck his head up Bush's ass, anyway). I support Obama, not because he is a Democrat, but because I feel he is the real deal. He will be not just a good president, he will be a GREAT president.
You know, John McCain and Sarah Palin have been saying some pretty nasty things about Barack Obama lately.
And I couldn't agree with them more...I couldn't disagree with you, I couldn't agree, with you, more than that you are the most patriotic, god-fearing person in the world.
But seriously, that woman is evil. EVIL, I tell you. Making women pay for their own rape kits crosses the line from regular old villainy into cartoonish super-villainy.
Very eloquent post. I agree.
I'm an indie too. I only hope the polls are correct. But there are a lot of really dumb people out there. And they can't see past race or rumors.
SSB, I get sick of hearing how negative BOTH parties have been. I really do not see negativity from the Obama campaign. In the last week we have gotten phone calls from both campaigns. ALL of the McCain calls told us how frightened we should be of the terrorist loving Obama. The Obama calls said we all need to come together to bring the change we need for this country -- so don't forget to vote! And in the last week or so we have gotten dozens of campaign droppings on our door step. The McCain ones are just like their phone calls and the Obama ones are just like theirs.
I have yet to see or hear a truly negative ad from the Obama campaign.
AG, awe thanks, I was going for eloquent rather than the rabid bear option.
Shamus, I know. Though every time I start to get hope that this country is pulling out of the ignorance hole it has fallen into, I am unpleasantly surprised to find it digging it deeper. :(
BUT this election HAS to be different!!