John's Blog

Wow, you take a little breather and before you know it a few months have flown by. The urge to post has hit me sporadically, but the notes just sit there and I usually lose the will to try and tie the tidbits together into something semi-coherent. I was on the verge of culling through these notes and pulling out a few gems, when I had my 2nd hard drive failure in three months; of course I didn't have anything backed up. Luckily I didn't lose all that much, mostly just music and pictures. Hopefully, I've finally learned the value of frequent back-ups.

But I will take a moment to tackle one of those topics that I left unexplored to go off on a little "mini-rant". Of all of the frustrating things that I see in the political arena, the one that baffles me the most is the large numbers of "undecided voters". Who the heck are these people, and what does it take for them to make-up their minds? We are faced with stark contrasts between the Presidential tickets on policy direction, demeanor, and character so it really shouldn't be all that tough to pick a side.

Yet apparently, many still fall into this category. It makes you wonder what criterion they must be using to make a choice; apparently reading up on issues and candidates isn't one of them. I had hoped that we had learned that using superficial silliness like "which candidate would I have a beer with" isn't the best litmus test, but apparently not. McCain continues to re-invent himself and hide behind the bogus "Maverick" label, with few challenging him on this fiction. The recent Rolling Stone article certainly calls him to task and reveals a disturbing pattern of dishonesty that stretches beyond this campaign. This is not a man who has the character or intellect to be in the White House. And don't even get me started on "Caribou Barbie". Who knew it would be possible to find two less qualified (and more dangerous) people than Bush & Cheney?

Of course, the 300 pound gorilla in all of this is the race card. I'm sure that much of the negativity that we will see in the home stretch will attempt to stir up doubts and fears to play to the undecided voters for whom this is a factor. One of the more effective and moving rebuttals to this came from AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Richard Trumka in a recent speech where he blasts racism and underlines why workers should vote Obama in 2008. I can only hope decency and common sense prevail in this election; I don't think I can take another crushing disappointment, nor can our country!

Tags: politics, pointless rambling