The speech that John McCain delivered can best be summed up as full of a sense of patriotism and wanting to change the status-quo in Washington D.C. Considering that America is still involved in two wars, one in Iraq and the other in Afghanistan, it is not surprising that a heavily nuanced theme of Nationalism (“Country First’) and military service augmented John McCain’s incredible ordeal as a POW in the “Hanoi Hilton” for 5 unimaginably brutal and tortuous years; being subjected to atrocities that scarcely anyone can hardly imagine. If ever there was one distinguished American who should be honored and recognized for his military service and devotion to his country, then John McCain certainly stands right up there near the top. Having said all of that, still even someone with such an impeccable record as well as serving thirty years in the U.S. Senate with distinction does not by itself qualify him to be President of the United States.
On Thursday, September 5, 2008, Senator John McCain had the opportunity to tell the American people by laying out his case, much like the duty of a lawyer presenting evidence before a judge and jury as to why he would be the best choice to be the sole occupant to sit in the Oval Office. Although Senator McCain is not known for being one of the most oratorical-gifted Senator’s, still he failed to give specific and concrete steps that he would take to solve some of the most pressing issues that the average American citizen faces, namely, jobs and healthcare; among a few others. Yes, there was the typical ‘boilerplate’ as George Stephanopoulos, Senior Correspondent for ABC News calls it. McCain talked a lot about “CHANGE” (sound familiar??), about our being Americans, government corruption, losing the confidence and betraying the trust of the American people, and quite a lot of time was spent on the McCain biography; perhaps a little bit too much time.
There were some light brushes of issues that McCain wanted to address, such as: reducing big government, doubling the child tax exemption, lowering business taxes, opening new markets for our domestically-produced products, new job creation and worker retraining, choice of sending children to a public, private, or charter school, and spending some of the estimated 700 billion on oil sent to mostly the Middle East and use those funds to invest in and develop new technologies in nuclear energy, wind, oceanic tides, solar, electric hybrid energy sources as well as drilling offshore as a temporary stopgap measure until America gets these new energy sources up and running. One of the more memorable statements by John McCain besides chastising the more entrenched special interests and corporate lobbyists within GOP was when he said that “Education is the Civil Rights issue of this Century.” Little does he realize that this profound statement will have significant implications in the future; especially among those who are racial minorities.
Selecting Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as the Vice-presidential running mate, it seems was a shrewd and clever choice, and only time will tell if it was the right choice. Sarah certainly has energized the Convention delegates who are just enamored with her and she will undoubtedly attract some of the Conservative base and White women in general who can relate to her. With an employment rate at 6% nationally, high department store retail prices everywhere, a slumping economy, high gasoline prices, and increases across the board at the grocery checkout, it’s going to take a lot more to convince the average blue-collar worker and the nearly 65-95 million ‘Baby Boomers’ who will be retiring within the next several years than just clever one-liners and sharp barbs at Barack Obama.
It is going to take coming up with practical solutions and since the McCain-Palin ticket are still the inheritors of the failed Bush-Cheney Republican legacy, it going to require more than just a group of “talking-heads” going at it with each other. Perhaps that political Ad or spoof by Paris Hilton needs to be looked at again because by mimicking both Obama and McCain, she might be on to something, which is, instead of an either-or-solution, why not look at the merits of both and take the best parts from each.
For too long in our politics, each side of the major political parties tries to play one-upmanship on the other and it’s like the little kid with the ball who says, “It’s my ball and my rules and if I can’t get my way, I will just take my ball and go home.” Even if a Democrat learns that a Republican has a better policy solution, he or she will either plagiarize (Oops, rework) it and pass it off as their own original idea, credit it to someone else, or simply just discredit it; vice versa for the Republicans too.
This is probably the way things are done in the Nation’s Capitol, it seems, and as a confirmation of the poor Legislative accomplishment of our Federally-elected officials is the fact that President Bush’s approval ratings are the lowest of any President since this information was collected. Not surprisingly, how the citizens rate the U.S. Congress is even worse. Let’s hope that the ‘Change’ which both the Democrats and Republicans promise won’t end up leaving the voter getting ‘shortchanged.’
Robert Randle
776 Commerce St. #B-11
Tacoma, WA 98402
September 5, 2008
pbks@hotmail.com
