Yes this election is about many specific issues, but the more I watch media coverage,political ads, townhalls and forums, the more I'm convinced this election will be a litmus test on what sort of intellectual capacity we have collectively as a people.
Listening to Obama speak, especially off the cuff, you hear someone who is reasoned and complex and nuanced in his answers.
I listen to McCain and I see yet another empty suit. He's like Bush, not just in the way that he's started to ape him in regards to stances on issues. But worse, he sounds like Bush in that you get the distinct feeling that he really doesn't know what he's talking about in regards to issues, he's an empty suit.
Bush won the first election in part by stealing it via election fraud and the Supreme court. But besides that, there is a significant number of Americans who don't seem interested in complex thought, they are looking for litmus tests and simple cartoon like solutions to complex issues. Bush clearly appealed to the voter who is looking for buzz words and feel good politics.
Bush won his second election, I feel mostly based on fear and propaganda. Certain buzz words and concepts were utilized to strike fear in American citizens were repeated consistently, playing up the images of 9-11, terror, terrorism, war, and THE OTHER. Americans that came out to vote, bought into this propaganda and cartoon like thinking to complex solutions.
Watching the Saddleback Church discussion I listened carefully as McCain gave simplistic answers to complex issues and questions, he sounded like he was a robot giving yet another prepared stump speech
It remains to be seen what Americans really want.
I'm still not convinced that we as a nation can handle or want to be lead by complex thinkers.