Obama & McCain Switch Places
 
I received the following from a relative via email two days ago.
 
Ponder the following:
 
What if the Obamas had paraded five children across the stage, including a three- month-old infant and an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter?
 
What if John McCain was a former president of the Harvard Law Review?
 
What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?
 
What if McCain had only married once, and Obama was a divorcee?
 
What if Obama was the candidate who left his first wife after a severe disfiguring car accident, when she no longer measured up to his standards?
 
What if Obama had met his second wife in a bar and had a long affair while he was still married?
 
What if Michelle Obama was the wife who not only became addicted to pain killers but also acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?
 
What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?
 
What if Obama had been a member of the Keating Five?
(The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s.)
 
What if McCain was a charismatic, eloquent speaker?
 
What if Obama couldn't read from a teleprompter?
 
What if Obama was the one who had military experience that included discipline problems and a record of crashing seven planes?
 
What if Obama was the one who was known to display publicly, on many occasions, a serious anger management problem?
 
What if Michelle Obama's family had made their money from beer distribution?
 
What if the Obamas had adopted a white child?
 
You could easily add to this list. If these questions reflected reality, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as they are?
 
This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in another when there is a color difference.
 
Educational Background:
 
Barack Obama:
Columbia University - B.A. Political Science with a Specialization in International Relations.
Harvard - Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude
 
Joseph Biden:
University of Delaware - B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science.  
Syracuse University College of Law - Juris Doctor (J.D.)
 
vs.
 
John McCain:
United States Naval Academy - Class rank: 894 of 899
 
Sarah Palin:
Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semester
North Idaho College - 2 semesters - general study
University of Idaho - 2 semesters - journa lism
Matanuska-Susitna College - 1 semester
University of Idaho - 3 semesters - B.A. in Journalism
 
Education isn't everything, but this is about the two highest offices in the land as well as our standing in the world. You make the call.
 
Now then, I don’t know the author of this piece or the original source, but I can say that that the result is: 1) Food for thought, and 2) Authored by a liberal.
 
Has John McCain ever confirmed or publicly announced that he left his first wife because she didn’t “measure up” to his standards?  This may well be true, but it cannot be proven––except by Senator McCain.
 
It’s also worth noting that John McCain was exonerated in the Keating Five scandals.  He did receive a formal reprimand from the Senate, but so did John Glenn, one of the most respected figures ever to grace this nation’s legislative branch.
 
What, exactly, is a “serious” anger management problem, and who gets to define the parameters of “seriousness”?
 
And so on.  Picking these things apart is all too easy.   What’s sad is that the original author has a valid point, and then allowed him or herself to get carried away in the making of it.  The Obamas would indeed be judged very differently if their accomplishments and those of the McCains were somehow switched.  One doubts the Obamas would have made it to the Senate in the first place, much less to where they stand today, perched at the brink of the U.S. Presidency.
 
So what we really have here is a glimpse into what Sen. John Edwards liked to call “the two Americas.”  Except that in many ways, he had it wrong.  His was a distinction of economic circumstance, a broad brush of income as arbiter of class and opportunity.  
 
The above screed suggests that the two Americas have deeper fundamental divisions.  
 
On the one hand, we might set those who value information and all that this entails: Education, broad perspectives, dialogue and the Socratic method.  
 
On the other hand, we might emplace those who place doctrine first and foremost, who value the writ word of some prior, higher law, be it Biblical or constitutional or otherwise.  Duty, regardless of its object, rules here.
 
Loosely, these camps have come to be known as liberals and conservatives, but they are, at rock bottom, more a kind of mental profile.  
 
Those who favor a doctrinal approach are more likely to seek answers and fight for firm footing.  Those who favor an informational approach are more likely to be comfortable with limitless questions and unstable, constantly shifting ground.
 
A McCain supporter got quoted on radio yesterday as saying that she loved the rally atmosphere because it was where she could “find real Americans.”
 
“Real Americans,” in this parlance, are doctrinal Americans.
 
Locally, this division is reflected almost daily of late in the Letters to the Editor section of Evansville’s Courier & Press newspaper.  Those supporting Obama/Biden (or other Democrats vying for lesser office) invariably cite their chosen heroes’ broadmindedness, their qualifications, their education, their ability to ask probing questions and surround themselves with sharp advisors.  Those supporting McCain/Palin continually fall back on the idea that no matter how smart Obama may be, he doesn’t have his basic principles in order.  Therefore, it doesn’t matter what follows or what Obama may have to offer.  Intelligence and quick wittedness isn’t what counts: It’s fundamentals principles.
 
And what are fundamental principles?  Most often, this is code for a very specific religious background, one that is certainly Christian and is likely to be both Evangelical and conservative.
 
Christianity is not the only church on the line in the so-called “culture wars.”  Another is the High Temple of Wall Street, and it’s been having a rough time of late.  The sleeping giant known as The Taxpayers have finally been roused to question whether the High Temple is actually a benign or even a desirable entity, but even so, no real revolution has come of the $700 billion bailout.  No surprise, perhaps; for most, the stakes remain low.  But the High Temple continues to fray, and one wonders how long Joe and June Taxpayer will continue to put up with “bailouts,” even those that stand to make a profit in the long term.  This is one culture war that is only getting started, and mark my words, it will be every bit as fierce as the more traditional cultural skirmishes outlined above.
 
One possible (though probably not desirable) outcome would be the eventual legitimacy of the Libertarians as a vital, competitive third party.
 
As for parenting, I believe the Golden Rule gets everyone a long way towards a strong, moral life.  “Do Unto Others…”  Would that both presidential candidates and their many proxies (the aggressive nitwits running their ads) could keep those words in mind.
 
No such luck.  Once again, politics––which ought to be in the business of not only asking but solving fundamental questions––is degraded by cheap shots and cat calls.
 
Ah, Bartleby.  Ah, humanity.
 
 
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Tuesday, October 21, 2008