Contrasts and grumblings.......

Still a bit under the weather, so my sleeping isn't quite going as planned. So while in a wakening period and some what lucid, I thought I would address something that has been weighing on my mind this whole campaign season, plus the combination of anti-histamines and "super-tylenol", have me a bit loopy so this ought to be a fun little exercise into why one should not type while on drugs.

Yes I know, another political post. I am sure, all three of you are tired of reading my rantings on this stuff, but the reason I am dwelling on it is two-fold: 1) For my own sanity. You hold all this stuff in and you might burst a blood vessel. 2) When I talk to people (friends, family even strangers), they all seem to say the same things. They are extremely concerned about their future and they don't like the way the country is headed.

Yet that being said, they don't seem to pay much attention to what those seeking to make decisions about those futures, actually think, where are what their policy positions are, nor what their voting record might be. They tend to use their franchise as a means of validating pre-existing prejudices. Meaning, if you tend to vote democratic, odds are you will vote democratic by default, same for republicans. This seems incredibly irresponsible to me.

I don't know how to put it any simpler than this. If you are not willing to take the time, to at least take a cursory glance at the candidates voting records and/or policy papers (where you can find them), then in my estimation you don't really deserve the awesome right of the franchise. We invest a lot of authority in these officials, separating what they say from what they have actually done is important. Also it helps evaluate their thought process.

If it seems like I am meandering around a bit, it highly likely that I am. The reason for such a long preamble has to do with the events of these past couple of weeks. The last couple weeks of the campaign have been exceedingly depressing. When the country is at, arguably, its most tumultuous point since 9/11, not due to some unexpected attack or catastrophic natural disaster (not to diminish Ike), but due to sheer incompetence, corporate malfeasance and poor governance. Yet we spent the last couple weeks dithering over "lipstick on a pig" and who is or is not a celebrity. I can't help but think of Nero fiddling away as Rome burns at times like this.

Wages are shrinking, jobs disappearing, health care costs are out of control, a spiraling deficit, unsustainable dependence on petroleum, a loss of stature and credibility on the world stage, and we are quibbling over the use of a common colloquialism? Seriously?

Case in point, it took the collapse of 5 of the 6 investment giants in order for people to focus on the economy again. Evidently their shrinking paychecks weren't enough, nor the increasing price of gas, but the country near financial collapse got everyone's attention. Now that I have lulled you into a pedantically induced haze, I will get to the point. Both candidates put up ads in response to the investment banking collapse. I will post them here for your perusal.

Senator Obama:


Senator McCain:

Senator Obama's ad clocks in at around 2 minutes, and Senator McCain's ad is around 30 seconds long. Watch them and determine which seems to actually have a plan for handling this crisis. Not to be prejudicial, but I can not spot a policy prescription anywhere in Senator McCain's ad. There is some tough talk, but very little substance. But I am a bit biased, I have actually looked at their various voting records, public statements and policy initiatives. So you can decide for yourself who at least sounds like a better steward.

Learn about the candidates:
Senator Obama
Senator McCain

p.s I am tired of the "drill baby drill" mantra the Republicans have adopted. It is myopic and intentionally misleading. We posses at best 3-4 % of the worlds oil reserves. It takes in the neighborhood of 2-3 years to scout out the location for a new rig. Getting the rig built and operational can take an additional year and a half. And that is the proposal for getting one more additional rig built. Not to mention the 2-3 year waiting list for the boats and drilling apparatus to make the rig. You do all that, and we would still gain more oil in savings, by using proper automobile maintenance ( properly inflating tires), then we would get from the additional oil rigs.

-cheers

--edit embedded the wrong video for McCain