The more I think about the current presidential election the more I just shake my head in disbelief. What is it that I find so hard to believe? That there even needs to be an election at all (though of course I mean this figuratively). Forgeting everything else, we have one of the best campaigns in American history being run against what has got to be one of the worst. And that is just the tip of the iceberg.
It just boggles the mind that anyone, other than a few oil company executives and bank presidents, could find even a single reason to vote for McCain. I find it hard to believe McCain could muster even 1% of the votes.
When looking at a candidate, I think one could boil it down to three main catagories. These are the campaign, the person and the policies. Though these three metrics are intertwined they can be somewhat seperated and evaluated individually. Not only do I see McCain being inferior in all three, I really don't even see him registering on the chart. What we have is an inept campaign for a boring candidate promoting terrible policy. (whats not to like? lol)
Without going too indepth I would like to examine all three of these metric for each candidate.
The campaign:
Pretty much everyone agrees that the Obama campaign is one of the best in our nations history. They have excellent message control and fund raising ability. For the first time, in recent history at least, they are trying to include every citizen in every state in the union. Most importantly, (IMHO) they are taking the lead in setting the tone, meaning they are the ones acting, causing the other campaign to react. As the age old adage says, the best defense is a good offense.
The McCain campaaign on the other hand is a mess. Their messages change weekly if not daily. They can't raise as much money in a good month as the other campaign can raise on a good day (I know this is a bit of a stretch, but it is fundementally true). They are running a proverbial 50% +1 campaign, but are having a hard time leading in the states they should have in the bag and are losing in many of the swing states they need to lead in to have any chance. They are being almost purely reactive which is starting to cause some real problems in that he has almost been reduced to the butt of a joke. While Obama speaks in front of a couple 100k people in Germany, he speaks in front of a couple dozen in a german restaurant (could The Onion of done better? I think not lol).
Like I said in the intro, this is a 'one of the best' vs 'one of the worst' situation.
The candidates:
In this catagory, what more can I say than Obama is a 'prince'. He is charming, intelligent, photogenic, well educated and articulate. He presents himself well in front of large groups as well as one on one with world leaders. He has also proven to be an excellent manager. Since being president is like being the 'CEO' of America (for lack of a better term) and being a CEO is being the 'head manager', managerial skills are very important. The primary skill of a manager is delegating authority to those who are better at the particular task at hand, since no one can be best at everything. These managerial skills are most evident by the excellent campaign he is running. Finally he has shown to be a master of political 'akido' turning negatives into positives faster and smoother than the best used car salesman on the planet.
As far as McCain, he is so bad I almost don't know where to begin. He is the 'anti-Obama' lol. He is neither chrismatic nor a good speaker. He comes off as bumbling and often clueless. Worse he can be, for lack of a better word, creepy when he chooses to and how he smiles. Not only can't he manage a campaign, he can't even manage himself most of the time. Is there a day that goes by in which he doesn't make a gaff? If there are, they are so rare they are easily forgotten. To be honest, I really can't think of one positive thing to say about McCain 'the candidate' and i'm really trying. I guess to be fair and honest he does have one thing going for him, as sad as it is, in that he is an older white male, and that very fact will appeal to some.
These differences in this regard are so large that they are obvious when they candidates are apsrt, what is it going to look like once they have a debate?
The policies:
I'm going to keep this short since policies are far to complex to fit into a few paragraphs. In a nutshell, most of Obama's policies are supported by a majority, often a vast majority, of the American people. Ending the war in Iraq, fixing the economy, repairing our standing in the eyes of the world, facing Global Warming and resolving the energy crisis are some of the biggies just to name a few.
This is the one area where McCain does show some life, since there are definately people who support some of the Republican policies, especially when dealing with wedge issues. Regardless of this, many of McCains stances are so unpopular that he is adopting Obama's. When one has to change their stances to look like the other guys, you know they are in trouble.
I have a feeling as this campaign progresses we are going to see lees and less difference between the two in this one area as McCain slowly hijacks Obama's positions.
In the end i'm not in love with Obama the candidate, though I am very fond of Obama the person. I feel his presidency will, in the end, look very much like Clinton's, but without all the personal drama. On the same note I think McCain's presidency will look very much like Bush's, but without all the personal stupidity.
I just don't see how McCain could possibly get more than the 23-27% of the vote that is currently Bush's popularity, though i'm sure he will. What does that say about us as a nation? What is it that people will see in him to cast their vote in his favor? I don't know, but of all the things about our country we need to fix, that might be the most important.