Yes, John McCain does come across as a bit 'dull', but part of this impression is obviously caused by the fact that he is older than the other candidates and the other part of it may be due to physical injuries he suffered as the result of war and time spent as a P.O.W.

The way we need to see John McCain is as an ‘old warrior’ who has always been there when we needed him.

He also needs to be seen as a ‘survivor’, not only of war, but of the D.C. scene itself which often chops politicians up and then spits them out in little pieces.

The fact that John McCain has political resiliency should be of comfort to the American people who are currently burdened with economic concerns about their future.

John McCain has been our ‘steady hand’.

Although Obama is young and vigorous, he's still a ‘wild card’.

But John McCain will not need to ‘remake’ his image like Barack Obama will have to do in order to win the 2008 Election.

All we have to do with John McCain is see him as a reflection of ourselves.

John McCain is a political icon of our time. He's already a great man and already deserving the admiration and respect of every American. He's already the embodiment of what our hopes and aspirations should be in every American who serves in Washington, D.C.

The vision he inspires is there but unfortunately in the forefront of that vision is a panorama that is littered with the debris of past administrations, both Republican and Democrat alike.

Unfortunately, the tendency of most of us is that we are backward-looking, obsessed with the mistakes of mere mortal men and tend to want to put the onus for those mistakes on others, forgetting that America is a 'democracy'.

Obama is riding on a wave of discontent caused by what he sees as the mistakes of others…he is riding a wave the same way that George Bush rode a wave of vengeance that propelled the nation into Iraq after 9/11.

There is no way that I can fault John McCain for going along with the President on Iraq.

Iraq was a hard call…because at the time, the ‘mob’ was crying for blood. And, it wasn’t only ‘George Bush’ who was responsible for Iraq...the American people had their hand in it too!

After 9/11, many Americans were out for vengeance...just like they were after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Their disposition was such that after 9/11 they provided an opportunity for special interests in the White House to take advantage of the political momentum that they provided.

My fault with George Bush was in the way that he exploited the situation and pursued an agenda that was hatched by special interests right in the White House.

But John McCain wasn’t President when this happened. He was just a U.S. Senator that got swept up into the current like a lot of politicians did at that time in Washington, D.C.

In large part, John McCain's political career depended on going along with Bush on Iraq…the same as it was with most politicians in Washington at that time.

Even Obama and Hillary Clinton saw their own discontent with going into Iraq watered-down due to the political expediency of the times.

Obviously, everyone in Washington feared ‘the wrath of the mob’.

Compromise became a necessity to political survival.

But, as for myself, I didn’t give a damn about the mob because I wasn’t a U.S. Senator or Congressman and I wasn't in the political limelight.

‘And, I refused to be a lemming’.

 We from Alaska know what lemmings do.

But, I did speak up, but only because I felt I had nothing to lose like my friends in Congress did.

But all it did was alienate me from my old contacts in Washington and put me at odds with American Foreign Policy upon which I depended as an international contract teacher.

Still, I did not hold it against my fellow Republicans in the Senate who decided for their own reasons to take a different fork in the road.

'I knew what it meant to be stuck between a rock and a hard spot...so I let it go!'

But, I was certainly accused of being ‘unpatriotic’ by a lot of Americans – but never, never by my friends in Washington who knew me well.

And this is what I’ve always appreciated about men like John McCain and Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska – both Republicans who are of the same mold and of the same character.

'Theirs is the stuff that great men are made of.'

Trillions of dollars later with an economy that is faltering, the American people are now having second thoughts about their decision to go into Iraq and lynch Saddam Hussein.

With Barack Obama, many Americans seem to have forgotten how they got into Iraq in the first place and why their economy is in such a mess.

Well, we’ve all heard the story about ‘The Emperor with No Clothes’.

And this is just about where the American people are right now on the issue of Iraq.

So, as far as Barack Obama is concerned…what he’s up to now is just like George Bush did when he rode a wave of vengeance into Iraq, but this time Barack is attempting to ride a wave of discontent into the White House.

Unfortunately, despite what many people think about Obama’s message – there’s nothing 'fresh' or 'new' about it.

What Obama's offering is a ‘false hope’ that once he's made President that he can somehow ‘turn off’ the Iraq War and after that the economy will 'magically' return to normal.

But, it’s too late for that.

It's too late if you believe that the trillions of dollars that we have already committed to Iraq don't mean anything. 

It’s too late if you believe that too much blood has already flowed under the bridge on account of Iraq.

It's too late if you believe that the lives of people ARE important and that this is the very reason why it's so important that America succeed in Iraq so that it doesn't allow the lives of those that have already been lost in that conflict to be in vain.

Morally, there is no other choice!

America does not wage war just to kill people! 

Post  finalized on 03/01/2008 at  0057

 

by James Carder

A Democrat from Oregon