...just some morning politics

So on John McCain. The more I see him, the more I see George W.
I'm not even going to mention the fact tht he is 72! 72, more than 10 years past retirement age. Let's just concentrate on basic facts. Russia invades Georgia and President Bush goes on vacation. Our president has spent one-third of his entire two terms in office either at Camp David, Maryland, or at Crawford, Texas, on vacation.
His time away from the Oval Office included the month leading up to 9/11, when there were signs Osama bin Laden was planning to attack America, and the time Hurricane Katrina destroyed the city of New Orleans.
Sen. John McCain takes weekends off and limits his campaign events to one a day. He made an exception for the religious forum on Saturday at Saddleback Church in Southern California.
I think he made a big mistake. When he was invited last spring to attend a discussion of the role of faith in his life with Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, at Messiah College in Pennsylvania, John McCain didn't bother to show up. Now I know why.
John McCain is as intellectually shallow as our current president. When asked what his Christian faith means to him, he gives a one-liner. "It means I'm saved and forgiven." Great scholars have wrestled with the meaning of faith for centuries. He then retold a story we've all heard a hundred times about a guard in Vietnam drawing a cross in the sand. So old, so tired, find a new one already. Asked about his greatest moral failure, he said his first marriage, because it ended in divorce. He said it was his greatest moral failing but he offered nothing of explanation. Why not?
Instead he chose to recite portions of his speech as answers to the questions he was being asked. Come on! He has lived 71 years. He's got to have some thoughts on what it all means beyond rehearsed answers from the same speech he delivers every day.
He was asked "if evil exists." His response was to repeat for the millionth time that Osama bin Laden is a bad man and he will chase him to "the gates of hell." That was it.
He was asked to define rich. After trying to dodge the question -- his wife is worth a reported $100 million -- he finally said he thought an income of $5 million was rich. Are you an idiot? Or maybe you just think we are. One after another, McCain's answers were shallow, simple, and without though. He showed the same intellectual knowledge that George Bush has -- almost none.
Where are John McCain's writings exploring the moral issues of our time? Surely anybody with thoughts of being President or who even takes leadership positions in this lifetime has some writings, at least some scribblings. As a mother of many and plenty to do each day, I even find time to still scrawl out my thoughts. Where are his papers on positions setting his consideration of foreign policy, the welfare state, education, America's moral responsibility in the world, etc.?
John McCain graduated 894th in a class of 899 at the Naval Academy at Annapolis. His father and grandfather were four star admirals in the Navy. Some have suggested that might have played a role in McCain being admitted. His academic record is just awful. And it shows over and over again whenever McCain is called upon to think quickly on his feet.
He no longer allows reporters access to him without monitoring their questions. He simply makes too many mistakes. Unless he's reciting talking points or reading from notes or a TelePrompter, John McCain is lost. He can have a beer with the good old boys at the bowling alley or diner, short glib responses that get a chuckle, but beyond that McCain gets in over his head very quickly.
I am sick and tired of the president of the United States embarrassing me. The world we live in is too complex to entrust it to someone else whose idea of intellectual curiosity is to tell us another story about being a political prisoner. George Bush's record as a student, military man, businessman and leader of the free world is one of constant failure. And the part that troubles me most is he seems so happy with himself.
He will leave office with the country $10 trillion in debt, fighting two wars, our reputation in shambles, our government covered in secrecy and suspicion that his entire presidency has been a history of broken laws and promises, our citizens' faith in our own country ripped to shreds. Yet Bush goes bumbling along, smiling and continueing to spew moronic one-liners, as though nobody understands what a colossal failure he has been.
I fear to that should John McCain manage to win out of Barack, he will turn out to be exactly like Bush.