EBay Wisdom

In every speech it seems that Sarah Palin burnishes her reformist credentials by hyping the fact that she put a state jet on Ebay. I'm sure your average American is impressed with the homey wisdom of the bespectacled Alaska governor.

Think about that for a minute. Now add the fact that she put it on EBay twice and failed to sell it either time plus the fact that it was ultimately sold via an aircraft broker and you are left with a somewhat different picture. Sure, she sold the damn plane. Good for her. However her judgement starts looking a little suspect. Your average Hockey Mom (tm) might think the best way to unload something is on EBay but among the Experienced (tm), these sorts of deals just don't go down that way. Naivite, perhaps? Yes and forgivable in your average American. Worldly-wise enough to be President? I'm not sure.

I am left wondering what else Sarah Palin doesn't know enough about to know that she doesn't know enough about it. That is Wisdom and it is something that Palin has not yet demonstrated clearly. Similarly, while Barak Obama's manner consistently hints at a level of self-reflection that guards him against rash and unwise action, John McCain, in some ways like George W Bush, shoots from the hip and risks lodging a bullet in everyone's foot.

Some people feel that men or women of action are needed to keep this country strong and safe. I think the last eight years bears me out in believing that action is dangerous when not balanced by curiosity and awareness of the limits on our ability to predict the consequences of our actions.

Obama may prove too circumspect to act when necessary but John McCain (and Sarah Palin?) gives every indication that he will act without understanding the consequences.

On Community Organizers

"Jesus was a community organizer. Pontius Pilate was a governor."

A blog commentator

More Sex and Politics - the Obama Edition

Obama said that teen mother's are off limits as a campaign attack but his surrogates are saying, "True, but this raises questions about McCain's judgment in picking Palin." THIS IS STILL MAKING TEEN MOTHERS A CAMPAIGN ISSUE!!!

Relics?

I don't know if my thoughts are completely formed or even cogent on this but I am struck by something.

On the one hand you have John McCain demanding that American troops stay in Iraq until they can return home victorious. For one thing, I didn't know people used the word "victorious" anymore. I must be an "in victory" kinda guy. Anyway, I can't shake the impression that McCain is trying to redeem the Vietnam War here. I expect him to slip up one of these days and utter the implicit "this time" at the end of his speech. It would not be unprecedented for a politician to seek to defeat the Vietnam syndrome once and for all. Secretary Rumsfeld's Iraq plan sought to prove that wars could be won with out bogging down a la Vietnam.

The parallel case is Dick Cheney trying to prove that we overreacted to Watergate and that concentration of power in the Oval Office is natural and desirable.

What is it with these guys? Are all of us spending our lives waiting for the opportunity to vindicate a past failure or can we just avoid these guys? What about Obama - is he seeking to redress the failure of the Black Star Line? Haight Ashbury? The breakup of the Beatles?

My ONLY Jeremiah Wright Post

A church is NOT a pastor. A church is a community. I know that my in-laws will not attend my church because the pastor jokes about their college football rival from the pulpit but most people become attached to the members of their Sunday school class, the programs and opportunities for ministry. Some even view their home church as a live market for selling insurance.

If the sermons push (or pierce) the envelop, are you really going to yank your children out the church where they have made friends? Where you have invested thousands of dollars in tithes? Where those you come in contact with challenge you to a more serious faith or greater compassion? Where your admittedly fiery and all too human pastor has provided sage advise and perspective in personal matters? Is your self-righteous indignation so great and humility so poor?

If you answer yes to any of these questions I will refrain from questioning the depth of your faith but will reserve the right to consider the quality of your humanity.

Calm Down

There is a great deal of angst out there among Democrats that somehow Barak Obama has lost his mojo and will be swiftboated into oblivion in November. This may be true but left out of the discussion is the man Barak would be running against.

The liberal hand-wringing continues whenever the fact that John McCain does not have an opponent for the nomination comes up. Oh my goodness, they whine, he is getting all this free air time to bash the Democrats. This, too, is true but who the hell is paying attention? Hillary is doing a fine job of bashing the Illinois senator. Everyone is talking about her. And when McCain does actually try to say something substantive, he blows it.

This brings me to my main point. John McCain is a terrible candidate. Once the main campaign starts and people start seeing him and hearing him speak, Barak and Hillary are going to look brilliant. For starters, McCain looks old. Sorry about that but it is true. Sometimes he looks tired. In an elder person this comes across as dazed. Sorry again. Even my life-long Republican father-in-law thinks so and he is over 80! On top of that McCain does not appear to be all that smart. His policies are simplistic when not completely disconnected from reality. He also has trouble speaking fluently in public. There are stories of him becoming unglued when the teleprompter fails. This is going to appear a little too Bushian to many. Now imagine John McCain in three presidential debates. It will not be pretty.

So, sure, Barak could get pummeled by the Republican dirty tricks brigade but who can walk away from that unscathed? McCain may snag some of the older voters that have supported Hillary but he won't get a single voter under 30 (if they show up). It will be difficult. The Oval Office was never guaranteed for the Democrats but let's not lose perspective.

Obama Unelectable?

I was sitting in the choir room at my church on Sunday when one of the ladies entered, walked up to the minister and asked, "What religion is that Osama guy?"

Whoa! I had read that Barak Obama had attended an Islamic school (right wing read - Madrassa) for some years as a child in Jakarta but did not know that the fact had penetrated to Aging Methodist Sopranos. The discussion quickly turned to the "fact" that Barak had joined a United Church of Christ just recently in a cynical ploy to hide the fact that he is really a Muslim. I checked out Barak's church and discovered that the Trinity United Church of Christ subscribes to something called the "Black Value System" and a "non-negotiable COMMITMENT TO AFRICA." Rush Limbaugh will have Obama painted as a latter-day Black Panther in no time.

Now, I live in Alabama, a state that a Democrat has no real chance of carrying. That said, how can Barak Hussein Obama's campaign survive the next year-plus with the constant onslaught of innuendo and slander that it is going to receive from the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy?

Bonus for Republican conspiracy buffs: Are we to believe that a Muslim, Black Power, State Legislator from Illinois is a serious Presidential candidate? In reality, Obama's candidacy is a ruse to draw fire away from Hillary...

Update: Barak Obama has been a member of Trinity UCC since 1988.