What a blur this week has been! It was going to be stressful enough without Stephanie Tubbs Jones passing, the local floods we had here in Houston, and every possible thing that could get in the way (which did!) On top of that sleep is more fitful than restful. There so many things that go through one’s mind when preparing for a big trip, so much to remember, and so hard to turn the brain off when your head hits the pillow!
Hopefully I’ll get some sleep in Denver this weekend. Lord knows I won’t be getting much during the remainder of the week!
So I spent most of the past two days RSVPing to events, getting my schedules plotted out, printing up a petition I’ll be gathering signatures on, and also checking on who the other delegates from other states are (trying to scout friends from the 2004 convention or other activist / political related events I’ve attended). It’s a lot to pore through, and that seems to help me become sleepy! Maybe I should just leaf through those all night instead of putting them down – much better night’s sleep!
On the political spectrum, obviously everything is swirling around the Veepstakes! That’s all anyone can talk about beyond the Olympics is the Veepstakes! On McCain’s side, there was quite a bit of controversy and a bit of an uproar when two of the “short list” McCain’s campaign put out included former Gov. Tom Ridge (R-PA) and former Democratic vice presidential candidate, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT). Both of those are non-starters. McCain may think about trying to pull in some more “moderate” voices to woo potentially disaffected Dems and Independents. Dream on. In Conservative America, his conservative butt is considered “liberal” – and not all that nicely. Both of those two are pro-choice – so forget it. It’s a misdirection play.
There’s lots of intrigue, speculation, and baited anticipation especially on Obama’s choice. Most have narrowed down everything to either Bayh, Biden and Kaine … but some are clucking about a total surprise like a Wesley Clark or Chet Edwards (especially in light of the Russians’ recent rediscovery of hegemony). Others are thinking he may go Hillary after all. My desire is Biden, but my gut says he’ll choose Bayh. Either way, it’s useless speculation on my part and everyone else’s.
Ultimately, who these two candidates choose is not the key issue. Their message, their principle and what the commit and then put into action: that is the primary (and really complete) reason for voting for someone. I’m comfortable with virtually anyone Obama decides to choose as I want to make sure his plan and his vision are what we begin working toward. America is hurting badly, and Republicans wish us to just “suck it up” and not worry about losing everything. If you were in the lower 98 percentile like me, what would you choose?
Finally there was an excellent op-ed by Dan Cafferty on CNN the other day [http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/18/cafferty.mccain/index.html]. Typically I’ve always liked Dan. He appeared a bit more on the conservative side to me when I used to have cable and watch, but more than others, he tried to be balanced in a true sense (not a Faux Fox sense). Apparently he watched the McCain portion of the Rick Warren interview and noticed what I did: very short personal answers, spliced with a healthy dose of his campaign stump-speech soundbites afterwards. It was a campaign speech disguised to be debate answers.
Cafferty took it even further. “It occurs to me that John McCain is as intellectually shallow as our current president. When asked what his Christian faith means to him, his answer was a one-liner. "It means I'm saved and forgiven,” and then Cafferty notes the immediate reliance on his Vietnam Christmas story, which has become a well-worn campaign chestnut. Cafferty added, “One after another, McCain's answers were shallow, simplistic, and trite. He showed the same intellectual curiosity that George Bush has -- virtually none.”
It’s difficult to imagine anyone as shallow as George W. Bush. That’s virtually impossible. But it does appear that the McCain of old – who never impressed me as that clueless – has somehow had his brain-sucked out by the RNC body snatchers.
Cafferty finished it up with a grand slam – something that many Americans have been feeling for some time, yet feared saying:
“I am sick and tired of the president of the United States embarrassing me. The world we live in is too complex to entrust it to someone else whose idea of intellectual curiosity and grasp of foreign policy issues is to tell us he can look into Vladimir Putin's eyes and see into his soul. …
He will leave office with the country $10 trillion in debt, fighting two wars, our international reputation in shambles, our government cloaked in secrecy and suspicion that his entire presidency has been a litany of broken laws and promises, our citizens' faith in our own country ripped to shreds. Yet Bush goes bumbling along, grinning and spewing moronic one-liners, as though nobody understands what a colossal failure he has been.
I fear to the depth of my being that John McCain is just like him.”
Until now, I’d never known where Cafferty’s politics stood (as it should be with news media). However, I’m very please to see I fully agree with his politics. And like Dan, I fear for the future of our country if we continue on this same neo-conservative path.
Now, it’s time to pack and run. Plane’s leaving in about 3½ hours, Denver and Democratic Convention – here I come!
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