The whimp on the left or the hypocrite on the right (Part I)

This presidential election is producing the worst set of presidential candidates I have seen since I started following politics as my father’s child and as a political science student. This election is not about solving the myriad of problems facing the country, from the energy crisis to the banking crisis. The Middle East crisis to illegal immigration, this election has changed from being about issues to making history. Who should make history first? The black guy from Illinois or the woman from Alaska? American politics is still about race, gender and pandering to special interest be it race, gender or big oil. The issues are dead, I cannot wait for the debate to start, will it be a real debate or another disgrace of a debate hosted by George Stephanoupulous and Charlie Gibson that asked Senator Barack Obama all the crazy questions elementary school kids could not think of? Would Jim Lehrer ask the real questions that will bring answers Americans are waiting to hear?There are some issues I want the candidates to elaborate on and I believe Americans of all races, ages, class and gender want responses to also. Like how is anyone going to clean up this mess? Listening to George W. Bush call Al Gore the candidate for big government back in 2000 and then see how much the party of small government expanded the government, wiped out the surplus from the Clinton Administration and almost 4 billion dollars to the national debt need an explanation from the Senator John McCain. I do not think Mr. McCain is the spokesperson for the Bush Administration, but as someone who during the Republican Primaries claimed to have voted with the President 90% of time, he in essence contributed to the mess we are in, now that he is preaching change, we will like to know how he intend on bringing that change. Not that the Democrats are not to blame also, they have out of political expediency let the Bush Administration and Republicans that controlled the Congress jam through every spending bill they could. Senator Obama has been part of that Congress for the past 4 years, he does have to explain every vote he cast for the massive bill that ships jobs and money overseas.I am waiting for Senator McCain to explain his logic behind the “fundamentals of the economy is strong” is the Senator playing politics or speaking his mind? How strong are the fundamentals of the economy with these many people out of work, with the failure of Indy Mac Bank Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch? How strong are the fundamentals of the economic when Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and AIG need bailing out? Whose fundamentals are strong, people like Senator McCain’s or the average American? It looks more like the boat is sinking while the captain keeps telling the people to stay calm. It’s not surprising when the left accuses Mr. McCain of being out of touch, when you can’t remember the number of houses you have and then think this economy is strong, you don’t have a solution. To know how to fix something you must know it’s broken and know what is broken, if one have no idea what is broken, there is no way you can fix it. That is how the candidate that ran on experience and ready to lead became the candidate that is now running on change by tapping a neophyte with an insulting resume and outrageous claims. With everyone shouting change, the sound of changed is drowning out real questions and how to solve the mess we are in. Senator Obama’s “change we can believe in” got hordes of Americans, young and old who have never participated in politics to believe in him and what they believed he represented. How Senator Joe Biden promotes that change is what I want to hear from Mr. Obama. Mr. Biden is a man who has spent his working life, 36 years in the United States Senate in Washington, how does that spelt change? For Mr. McCain 26 years in Senate, most of that under Republican Presidents and Republican controlled Congress, his, he claimed is the real change. How does a vice presidential candidate undergoing ethics investigation in her own state spelt change? If you have just gotten your international passport in the past 24 months and have only been out of the country 4 times, that does not give you any foreign policy experience. I want to hear Mrs. Palin tell us which head of state she met, which congress she addressed, which important foreign dignitary she conferred with. If proximity to Russia gives her the national security experience, what about the rest of the Alaskan? Is she more qualified than them? I mean she’s been governor for less than 24 months, she hasn’t issued any orders we know of to the Alaska National Guard. As Mayor of Wasilla, she was more like the Queen of England in that she performed ceremonial duties; Wasilla had a City Manager during her tenure, when Mrs. Palin uses her experience as mayor to mock Mr. Obama’s community organizing position, Mrs. Palin refuses to recognize the fact that Mr. Obama had responsibilities and actually increased tenfold the organization he inherited and the budget.