Almost every European I've talked to, excepting two hilarious Irish, has fallen head over heels for Obama, not because of his message or policy statements as his image: He's young, he's black, and he's the hip new thing on the street.
I don't get why how other people view a candidate should bother me, unless it will significantly impact his performance... Oh no, he's a celebrity! That's not a valid criticism, in my book.
I don't think that McCain's lack of polish or his temper are serious issues. One of his predecessors, a certain Washington, was known to have quite the volatile temper at times, and admittedly did not have the most raw intelligence of the Founding Fathers. Given a strong cabinet and a divided Congress, there is very little that McCain could do on force of will alone, as opposed to Obama, who would enjoy easy legislative approval from any Democratic Congress.
The Democrats will probably not win a filibuster-proof Senate majority, so it's not like we're going to have a tyrannical rule of one party. Heck, even when that did happen, nothing terrible happened: look at FDR's terms, or LBJ's.
The Presidency has also evolved since Washington; he barely went abroad (I don't actually remember him doing it at all), rarely met with foreign leaders, and had a much less prominent role compared to Congress. In this day and age, the CiC's role has grown a lot.
And that bothers me. McCain worked within the military and senatorial chains of command for decades, but Obama has never run anything larger than a Senator's office, and that for not even one term. Graduating from that to the presidency would require much more than charisma. It would require force of will.
I think he has force of will, and I don't particularly think McCain has a great experience advantage. He has what, a Senate career and a career in the military that was jump-started because he was a legacy from his father? That's not executive experience. In my view, you can't pull the experience argument, and it wouldn't matter if you could, because nothing really prepares you for running the United States.
Having, among other things, his teeth bashed in and his legs broken by his Vietnamese torturers, Mr. McCain has acquired a certain set of attributes that the law school education Obama enjoyed did not exactly provide. One of them is not giving a rat's ass when what you say isn't popular, and not being afraid of contact with, and criticism from, all comers.
There's a certain something that's also needed, especially when you're representing a nation, and that is restraint, civility, and suave, characteristics that McCain notably lacks. Don't get me wrong, I like the guy (most of the time, though why he's running the campaign he is is beyond me), but I don't think he'd be a better president than Obama.
Not to insult Obama or his choreographers, but the man is limper than a wet biscuit. His positions seemlessly shift with the winds of public opinion. He went from nobly refusing to disown his former pastor, to doing just that, after said pastor appeared at the National Press Club and acted like an idiot. As soon as the threat of media acclaim began to die, Obama sprang into action.
Oh, please. You should know better than to criticize politicians for doing this; McCain himself changed his own position on offshore drilling because he found the one wedge issue that would actually matter to people.
His policy positions are vague and aimed to please. And his foreign policy, well. This man is markedly incapable of understanding, let alone commanding, the military involved in an Iraqi conflict that only now shows signs of permanently stabilizing. Just in time to reignite the bloodbath.
The withdrawal plan was approved by the Iraqi president. I like you, Thy, but I'm going to trust the man who's had more trips to Iraq.
Lol, inflating your tires and getting a tune-up will save more oil than we could ever drill
