Well, who knows what influence either Barack Obama or John McCain had on the bailout discussion? I suppose we will never really know. I don't understand a lot of the financial lingo when I read about it. That's ok -- this post isn't about policy, it's about character.
McCain offered to suspend his campaign until a solution was found. He proposed to postpone the first debate. Here is a move that he and his advisers had to know would be an unpopular decision and written off as a political stunt. They had to know that and they did it anyway.
Obama slammed him for it. I can't find the exact quote now, but he said something like I think we can have a 90 minute debate and still find time to solve the problem. And I'm not surprised. Here is a man who has served at the federal level for 3 and a half years. After two years in that office he began campaigning for his next office. By the time the general election happens, half his time in his current job will have been spent looking for his next.
I wouldn't expect a man who's always had his eyes set on his next job to understand postponing his campaign for a few days. Maybe he can't because he's barely ever been in office without campaigning; only 3 years after he was in the state senate of Illinois he was campaigning for a federal position (he ran unsuccessfully for the House in 2000). I'm not sure I can buy that this is a guy who is really interested in politics to serve the public. Sounds more like a guy trying to serve himself, a guy who has always had eyes for the presidency, a guy who isn't really about change.
I gain respect for a man who is willing to do the job he has, especially if it means a sacrifice, who says afterwards: "Whether I helped or hurt, I'll be glad to accept the judgement of history." I lose respect for a man who won't prioritize the job he has over the one he's trying for, and who after not putting his job first still tries to take credit for the results: "[The proposed provisions] are identical to the things I called for the day that Secretary Paulson released his package. That I think is an indication of the degree to which when it comes to protecting taxpayers, I was pushing very hard and involved in shaping those provisions."
In spring of 2007, someone asked me who I would be if I could be any politician for a day. I said Barack Obama so I could see if he was full of crap or not. I haven't quite figured it out yet, but I'm leaning more and more towards yes.
Monday, September 29, 2008
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5 comments:
That last line got me laughing. Right before I read this, I was discussing the situation with my roommates. Obama's actions remind me of the popular high school guy who wins the school election by promising free pizza on Fridays and no school on Mondays. It sounds good to the general population in theory (I mean, who doesn't love pizza and long weekends), but deep down everyone knows he's full of crap. Obama's going to have to come full circle to win back respect from me this time.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Jeff, those are some strong words. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you're a racist. Now, don't get me wrong---your post had no racist content, but if you disagree with anything that Obama does, you are very clearly a race-driven white supremacist. It baffles me that someone like yourself---who claims to be progressive and college-educated---would even dare to criticize Barack Obama in this day and age. Astounding.
Carry on, you hate-filled, slavery-loving, anti-American jerk.
I'll try to make a reasoned response. I took a look over at http://www.votesmart.org to see both McCain and Obama's voting records over the last 13 months or so. The numbers indicate that McCain voted 19.77% of the time, Obama 33.72%. I'm guessing part of the difference is that not voting amounts to the same as a no vote, so I won't hold it against McCain. I think the numbers show that as much as people may want to believe that Obama is more ambitious than McCain, there isn't really evidence to show that.
Obama may have overstated his involvement in the talks, but according to reports from the meetings, Obama contributed more productively than McCain.
I don't think it is a good strategic idea to talk about eying the next job. Most of what I have seen from McCain in at least the last several years has been a play to the more conservative base in the party; the same base that rejected him in 2000.
I don't doubt that Obama is full of crap to a good degree, but I wouldn't discount McCain's own capacity for crap.
I'm sure you're right Jesse. I don't think one is any less full of crap than the other.
I'm a little late, but I have a question. Outside of announcing a suspension of his campaign, what actions took place to make you think it was actually suspended?
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