On August 21, during an interview with Politico.com, John McCain hesitated when he received the question of how many homes he and his wife have. He told them he would have to talk to his staff and get back to them on it. I for one am eagerly awaiting the answer.
I was appalled that McCain didn’t know and that he would utter such a thing, but perhaps its more complicated than we realize. For one, the Obama camp, Politco and news organizations cannot even seem to agree on how many habitations McCain possesses. Figures range from four to eight, yet Obama himself says seven. I can only account for this discrepancy by saying that perhaps there are some questions with the term “ownership.” Me, being a complete simpleton, would think that when one owns a house, it also means they at times reside within it. However, this is not the case when you get into economic areas like real estate.
I do believe that it was irresponsible for McCain not to have an answer for such a simple question, but how can we, the media and Obama be so quick to judge when we can’t even figure it out. As President one would have to deal with many complex complicated issues and I would hope that McCain could, but I feel discouraged by his remarks, but my choice in who I will vote for in the end isn’t relative.
Perhaps more people will see it this way as well and it will, in the long run, not be such a big deal for McCain. McCain still has plenty of time to gain some ground on Obama, but I feel the comment may have negated any progress he had made in the minds of the voters at the Saddleback Forum. Obama’s response to the comments was predictable and shallow. His point may have stuck with me more if he hadn’t brought up the five-million dollars comment. Anyone using any basic reasoning could tell that the comment, within the context, was a joke. McCain even said afterwards that it would be distorted, and Obama continues to do so, out of what has to be complete desperation.
So instead of Obama really being able to derive some real compelling argument from it, which I would have done, instead he goes the junior high tantrum route and uses it as mud slinging fodder. These attack are so ridiculous I end up turning the channel. Obama and his camp seem to be implying that if you are rich and have more than one home you can’t connect with the people of this country and don’t know anything about the economy. This is an absurd attack against ones personal productivity. There is nothing wrong with the building of ones capital and property. In fact, I could make the argument that you need to know more about the economy the more successful you are, or at least hire someone who knows. You, also, become a larger asset to the economy by employing workers within the business which made you prosper.
Alas, these things are never really thought of in the context of a political attack. This is true on both sides. I feel McCain attacking Obama in front of the VFW was completely inappropriate. McCain out of anybody should have seen that. However, can you really blame them? Truth is, such campaigning continues to be effective. It is up to the people to make this kind of political hatred go away, and we must forsake any attack either candidate makes.
It tends to make me feel like my voting is completely based on a negative relativism amongst the candidates, instead of really focusing on the true merits of each. Yet, am I to say that there isn’t a place for negative information coming out about a would-be President? I wouldn’t dream of it! There needs to be some accountability with the misdeeds of ones past, if they do indeed arise, but ones campaign should be based on merit and not based on the slander of the opponent. So, though McCain has slipped a little in my mind due to his recent blunder, it did not boost Obama in my eyes, and both candidates will have to regain ground based on their own individual ideals and accomplishment.
No comments:
Post a Comment