It's Gettin' Political In Here

So, I haven't really talked about politics in my blog before, mostly because I've been seriously flamed for it in the past when keeping other blogs and I would like to continue to enjoy blogging here instead of being angry at all of the flame comments I get. But it's election year and although I will not have the witty political commentary that Jason has, I'd like to get my two cents in.

I'm a democrat, and my liberal little heart loves things like civil liberties, gay marriage, women's rights, gender equality, education, the environment etc. These are things that I deeply believe in, so I'm with the party that most closely represents my own opinions and ideals. Sure, they're not perfect and I don't agree with absolutely everything the party has to say, but for the most part we see eye to eye on a lot of issues.

Now, with the election coming up, I've been looking forward to seeing the debates between the two parties, mostly because I think John McCain is a terrible public speaker and kind of a dead fish when it comes to public appearances in general, so I'm interested to see how he is going to rally his party behind him. I see a stark contrast between McCain and Obama. Obama has this passion that he has sustained through his entire campaign, and it seems like McCain doesn't have enough passion to sustain a sentence. Maybe it's because he's an old dude and the campaign trail is grueling and he's starting to feel the weight of it, I don't know, but it's just how I see things. Anyway, the idea of cancelling tonight's debate has got me kind of pissed off. McCain is not part of any sentate economic or finance committees, he has not rushed back to Washington for the past two or three years when things have crashed down around our ears, he didn't hop a plane to Washington when Behr-Sterns (sp?) collapsed, so why now? Why is it this week that suddenly he's got such a huge vested interest in this? If there's no senate vote going on, why does he have to be in Washington to oversee what's going on. Unless there's a vote, he has no say in what's going on. It worries me, because if he is elected President, he won't be able to just suspend what he's doing to address one issue. It's called multi-tasking, and I get the impression that a President has to be damn good at it. We had Presidential debates back in the late 1800's when we were in the midst of the Civil War, and those candidates weren't saying "Hey, we should hold off on this because there's this war thing going on". I think that they would have been justified in doing so, but they didn't. The point is, if you want to be President, you have to put up with the crap it takes to get elected. That means you have to go to your debates. I know that Obama has publically said he wants to talk about the economy, since it's at the foreground of everyone's thoughts right now as they worry about losing their job or their home, and I wonder if McCain is reluctant to go head to head with him on an issue he's openly said he isn't an expert on.

Plus, he wants to cancel Palin's debate for this same reason. Now, part of me wonders if he's cancelling his debate in order to justify cancelling hers. I wonder if his campagin is afraid to let her go toe to toe with Joe Biden since she's proven that she can't handle anything more than the assigned talking points when she's interviewed. Truthfully, this woman scares the hell out of me. I can't get behind an ultra-conservative evangelical VP. She might be a woman, and more power to her for that, but that's not enough to make me want to vote for her. She stands for the exact opposite of everything I believe in and I feel like she would make an even worse President than Bush, if that's even possible. Plus, McCain is like ten thousand years old, so chances that he's going to die in office are pretty friggin high, and I don't want this woman to be one heart attack away from making decisions that directly affect my life. No thanks. But, truthfully, I think McCain's debate cancellation is to keep Palin from having to participate in one. I think he's afraid of what she'll say because I think he may be realizing that she wasn't the right candidate to choose as his running mate. He made a hasty decision in the effort to get Hillary supporters to switch sides, and he chose someone who wasn't fully vetted and who he didn't know a whole lot about. Now I feel like he's realizing that Caribou Barbie is a loose cannon and can't be trusted to say the right things or even know enough about what's going on to be able to give any opinion on it whatsoever.

So, I'm pissed that we may not get a debate, because I sort of want to see Obama mop the floor with Grandpa McCain.

Yes we can!