Going Out Of My Mind...

I was chuckling this morning as a very combative Geraldine Ferraro tried to convince Diane Sawyer that her comment about Obama was taken out of context. That's always the caveat for foot in mouth blunders. You know, the comment about Obama being where he is today only because he's black. Okay. I just read she's now history. It took them long enough.

I got to thinking about this mud slinging match we call Presidential politics. Clinton, currently in second place, trying to pull Obama down to her level. The middle of the night phone call ad was bad enough but Ferraro's insult was really beyond the pale. Yet, this is the Clinton way.

I find it interesting how many of the pundits are saying Obama has to hit back and hit back hard. Yet there he is in his even handed way dodging the slime being slung at him, or at least deflecting it. Yeah, he's got to toughen up. He's got to be ready for the Republican onslaught should he somehow actually win the nomination. Yeah, no more mister nice guy. Get down in the pits with the rest of them!

What I see is an extreme degree of toughness and self discipline. Here is a man whose abilities have been questioned, his parentage, his toughness, his intellect and yes, even his name. How many of us could take the incoming he's been getting without exploding? He has pretty much brushed it off. Sometimes with an edge but mostly not. Sometimes with humor at the absurdity of the situation. This man who graduated first in his class from Harvard law and got to where he is today on his own merit, certainly not a spouse's coattails and most certainly not because he is a black male.

So what exactly are the traits we want in our next President? A person who can parry the onslaught from a desperate opponant with cool dignity or one who knows no depth is too deep from which to find the sludge to sling and slings it and slings it and slings it.

Okay. Enough of this for a while. I'll be out of pocket for a few days. Maybe by the time I return that bottomless pit will be drying up.