Governor Joe Manchin of West Virginia expressed my sentiments exactly when he said, having appointed the man who will be the youngest in the Senate replacing the oldest, "We passed this torch to another generation." That's how I felt about Obama. He was young, well educated and energetic. Traits McCain lacked. He was sharp where McCain was often fuzzy around the edges. There were two things I put on the back burner for which I am now sorry. Policy and experience. I neglected to research beyond the broad brush strokes of hope and change into the substance. Had I done so, or been able to since little was actually put forth, I'd not have voted for Obama. As for experience, well, that speaks for itself. One area where he has shown no progress is in curing his tin ear. His current vacationing in Maine while exhorting the rest of us to vacation on the Gulf coast is but one example.
Is it enough that I'd have actually voted for McCain? He was the alternative choice so I'd say yes. Knowing the Democrats were likely to hold the House and Senate, as they have, he'd at least have been a counter balance with the power of the veto. While there is little the far right proposes that I agree with, there is even less from the far left. I'd have looked for some issues to lean toward the middle, something we don't have now.
As for Sarah Palin as Vice President? She'd have not been my choice and it surely made me wonder what McCain was thinking when he chose her. One of his fuzzy areas. Had she been in office, howeve, seeing what she has become, she would surely be out there rallying the constituency. Anything in governmentese that needed translated so everyman and everywoman could understand it, Sarah would have been the one to explain it. She has an uncanny ability to state the obvious and have it become a rallying point.
Youth and inexperience are not synonymous any more than age and tired ideas are. Our next President, be it Obama or someone new, will be a younger man than McCain. The torch has been passed, that's for sure. I'm going to have to get used to ideas and thinking that often leave me befuddled. On the same hand, however, I don't have to buy into personality over substance.
3 comments:
I am a register Republican but I could not have voted for McCain. This is no time for fuzzy thinking. If she had had the nomination, I would have voted for Hillary. But Sarah Palen I could not have tolerated. She's a female Bush. One Bush is all this country needs.
I will give Obama a chance to deliver. He was the best of two bad choices.
I was teader todding (is that words) on the fence until the Palin choice... then that was a deal breaker... there is just no way I could take her in any office that would effect me...
That is why we really need a serious third party....
I like Obama and the idea of a change and hope... but still had my doubts... and of course I feel Congress is really the one who takes us down the road to ruin.
And the other thing I would have liked and said in my blog before the election... I would like to know who was going to be in the cabinet before they were elected.. that makes a difference too... to me
can't have a serious 3rd party until we switch from our plurality voting system to an Instant run-off vote or proportional representation voting system.
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