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HK

TJ wrote:
hk wrote:
TJ wrote:
wrote:
On Fri, 29 Aug 2008 21:14:13 -0700, CalifBill wrote:

Actually is not obvious at all. Obama has no, zero, nada executive
experience.

You are overlooking the obvious. So far, he has run a successful
campaign. It may not seem like much, but, if you pay attention,
campaigns to show how a candidate behaves under pressure, his
organizational skills, finances, etc. My left leaning bias may be
showing, but so far, I haven't been impressed with McCain's
campaign. I have been with Obama's. However, this is where the fun
starts. The next 10 weeks will be interesting. It's close. It's
relatively clean. I'm interested.

Candidates don't run campaigns anymore. That's what they hire
campaign managers to do.

Someone said during the primaries that the Presidency is no place for
on-the-job training. That sounds like something someone who has never
actually run something would say. Even Vice Presidents don't know
what it really involves to be President, though they probably are
closer to it than almost anybody else. As someone who has been an
"XO" who later became the "CO," I can tell you that until that
responsibility actually rests on your shoulders, you don't know what
it is, and you soon find out that many of the things you thought you
could do can't be done after all.

As there is no one running that has been President before, there
isn't a one of them that has any "experience." That's the case with
at least half of the elections in the history of the country. What
makes this one so different? What we need is someone with the ability
to learn and adapt, and to do it quickly, because the country might
not have the time to wait. Obama is young, and he's arrogant enough
to still think he has all the answers. McCain is seasoned, but is he
so old that he can't adapt to the situations he would face?

There is no clear choice in this election, if you ask me.

TJ

I'm voting for Obama, the candidate who has the wisdom and judgment to
make the important decisions, including picking a top-drawer running
mate.

The respect I once had for McCain declines almost daily. He's not
suited by intellect or by temperament to be president, and his
personal war experience is completely irrelevant, strategically,
tactically, and morally. He's out of touch with today's realities,
technologies, and possibilities. Frankly, he reminds me of an aging
barnyard rooster whose world has passed him by.

He's a 72-year-old man with really serious health issues, a man who
could take sick and become incapacitated at a moment's notice, and who
does he pick for a running mate? A PTA mom with no experience on the
world stage, and why did he choose her? To pander to evangelicals and
women voters.

McCain would be a worse president than George W. Bush, who quite
probably is the worst president in the history of the United States,
or damned close to it.

The choice is clear...someone like Obama who can lead us into the
future, or someone like McCain...who will give us more of the same.

By the way, I appreciate your well-reasoned post.

Thanks. I appreciate that.

But when you come right down to it, age is just a number. I'm 59, close
to the middle of the candidate's ages. I thought I was wise at 45, but I
can look back at some things and wonder what the hell I was thinking
back then. I also have known people who were old and feeble at my age
and others that were quick and vital in their 80's. It's a very
individual thing.

Before I decide who I want for my leader, I want to know where he wants
to take me. I haven't heard that from Obama. All I hear is that he wants
to change directions. Whenever I hear somebody say "Anything's better
than what we have now!" I get very, very nervous, because it simply
isn't true. I can think of many figures through history that would have
been worse for the country than George Bush has been. While I don't care
for the job Bush has done, I still think Gore would have been worse, and
Kerry worse yet. I made my decisions in those elections, and I stand by
them.

There's at least one thing that Palin has going for her. She has a child
with Down's Syndrome, and she knew about it early enough in the
pregnancy to have it terminated. That would have eliminated the
difficulties in raising such a child before they happened, yet she chose
to have the child anyway. That shows an ability to face the tough
life-and-death decisions, and the willingness to accept the consequences
of making those decisions. John McCain has also faced life-and-death
decisions, during his military service. If either Democrat has faced
such decisions, it hasn't come out yet as far as I know.

TJ

I believe McCain's age, coupled with his four bouts of cancer, make his
health a serious issue.

As for Palin's decision, I think it was the wrong one.