"We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them."
- President Andrew Sheppard, "The American President" (1995)
Since 2000 really, that has been the problem. We do not have serious people in charge. Sure, we have zealots, dogmatic, ideological nutcases, but we do not have serious people. Customarily, each election we talk about issues and personalities, how the candidates differ, both as people and as purveyors of policy positions. I mean, it's the way we've thought about elections as far back as student government. Indeed now, there are large ideological gaps between Obama and McCain, but it does not even matter. More below the fold.
When I look at my chief executive, I am not always going to agree with him. Indeed that was the case when George Bush Sr ascended to the Oval Office in 1988. His reign was a mixed bag that coincided with a recession that gave the Dems the White House. Certainly I disagree with a lot of his fundamental positions. But ... George Bush Sr was a SERIOUS PERSON. He was interested in governing, had a good command of issues. I questioned his judgment, but never, never could you question his sincerity. He did not just love his country as a slogan, but he was an experienced, well versed politician who cared about governing. He was also somewhat pragmatic, seizing failing SnLs and raising taxes when it simply became nonsensical to do otherwise.
Even that basic level of competence and attention to the job has been sorely missing since 2000. It is clear that George Bush Jr was in it for the perks and because he felt it was his "destiny". The notion of making his country better was wholly foreign to him. If it wasn't, he would not have agreed to be essentially a front man for some of the most vile, corrupt awful people of recent political history. While history might (correctly) judge him the worst president ever, he has really just been along for the ride of his own life.
And now look at 2008. John McCain has exactly ZERO reasons policywise that he advances to vote for him. He did not read the 3 page Paulson plan for the bailout. He got Sunni and Shi'ia mixed up. He does not seem to have any sort of real interest in actually doing the President's job. Even in his often quoted 2002 book "Worth Fighting For", McCain proclaims:
"I didn’t decide to run for president to start a national crusade for the political reforms I believed in or to run a campaign as if it were some grand act of patriotism. In truth, I wanted to be president because it had become my ambition to be president. . . . In truth, I’d had the ambition for a long time."
He wants that ego affirmation, the uniform, the honor of having "Hail to the Chief" play. But he has no real curiosity or interest in the job, no idea to make America better. Look at how slipshod his campaign has been, changing ideological positions at the drop of a hat. Look at his silly process for picking a running mate, and the similarly un-serious person he picked to be the running mate. Sarah Palin might be the most uncurious politician since George Bush Jr.
Barack Obama and Joe Biden do not just bring better ideas to the table than McCain-Palin. They simply bring IDEAS period (while McCain and Palin have not), and the evidence that they have given this country and its problems serious thought. I think they have the right stuff and are saying the right stuff to be the leaders we want and need. But even if they weren't, they would represent the first administration since 1992, to frankly, give a crap. They have run a professional campaign like people who give a crap about the presidency and the JOB of being president, not just the job title. That alone, outside of ideology, is enough to enthusiastically support them.
OBAMA-BIDEN '08