Why We Are in Trouble!

Watching parts of Sarah Palin's first interview with Charles Gibson from last night, I realized that we--the Democrats, liberals, independent-minded Republicans, and all thoughtful citizens of this country--are really in trouble.

Her answers consisted of moral certitudes, unflinching self-righteousness, and knee-jerk aggressiveness all of which belied the deeply seated intellectual insecurity. But it is exactly these traits that tap into the never-ending reservoir of the average voter who probably changes the channel while Obama attempts to give thoughtful answers on complicated issues, such as the role of Iran and Russia in today's world. There was not a hint of any sort of deliberation to Sarah Palin's worldview: she knows that there is evil in the world and she would help McCain rid the world of it. Her confused look after Gibson asked her if she believed in Bush's pre-emptive strike doctrine reveals that this woman has never even questioned this man's dangerous and reckless black-and-white vision of the world. But it is exactly this certainty that appeals to many voters, and it is exactly this certainty that is undermining Obama's message.

The recent shift in McCain's strategy has been marked by an all out assault on anything Obama does, has done, or will do, without any regards for the so-called "facts" or the "truth." The result has been a complete chaos in both campaigns' messages, which is exactly what the McCain campaign wants. They have successfully thrown Obama off his message and tapped into the voters' fear that everything that politicians say will be a lie. They are fine with that because they have no issues to run on.

As Paul Krugman noted in his op-ed this morning, the way the McCain campaign has been run shows what kind of president he would be. Bush's 2000 campaign also muddled the facts, but you had to have a handle on arithmetic to understand that their tax policy was a big deception. This time around, McCain's campaign does not even attempt to hide their lies underneath a semi-truthful cover--they just simply lie and repeat it over and over again. Given the fact that Bush's 2000 campaign strategy in selling the tax policy later morphed into his strategy of selling the Iraq war, can you imagine what kind of policies McCain would employ, given the tactics of his campaign?

It is simply too scary to think about. But to quote George Bernard Shaw, "Democracy is a device that insures that we shall be governed no better than we deserve." And I am more convinced every day that this country does not deserve Barack Obama.