Posted: Aug 22, 08
11:14am
After watching as much of the presidential race coverage as I can tolerate for the day, I realize I don't want to vote for either Sen. McCain or Obama.
Here's the rub: Neither one represents the reality I see every day. Neither one is without, IMHO, fatal flaws. Both of them are so spun, their messages so massaged, their personas so calculated, I have no feel for who they are as people.
Don't get me wrong: Both men are likable to me, I'd love to sit down for a drink with either or both and listen to their experiences and stories, ask questions of them that they'd answer honestly, even if off the record.
Both men are ambitious, highly intelligent, dedicated, perseverant, well-educated, articulate. They seem to want to lead the country for the betterment of all Americans.
But both men have opposite paths to this goal. Both feel to me like someone else's candidate. Obama seems controlled by his need to keep big liberal interest blocs happy and McCain seems beholden to large conservative interests.
Both men have IMHO fatal flaws: McCain's age (the presidency ages a man trendously. Look at before & after pictures of any president, and you'll see more lines, wrinkles, gray hair and world weariness than 4 or 8 years aging would give account.), Obama's horrifying refusal to support the Born Alive Infant Protection Plan, the danger in McCain continuing Pres. Bush's disastrous and ill-advised disregarding and dismantling of certain Constitutional freedoms, et al.
My dream? A candidate who tells the truth, even when it's hard or unpopular. When I used to watch The West Wing, I fantasized about a real-life Jed Bartlet running for office. He wasn't perfect, but he seems to me still a better choice than the two current candidates.
If such a candidate's not available, then if I could somehow mind-meld Sens. Obama and McCain, such an entity would make a decent president (even if it confused the hell out of their wives.)
So here's my question to you all: If you couldn't vote for McCain or Obama, who would you vote for? And: If you could make the ideal meld between the two men, what attributes from each would you select?
