Red Room Where the Writers Are

I don’t feel bad for John McCain anymore. Now I feel angry. Over the course of tonight’s debate I saw a man who was petty and angry and completely without honor. Spouting off falsehoods and continuing to attack Obama with lies while trying to play the victim and get him to “repudiate” John Lewis.

Obama, again to his credit, did not rise to the bait. You could see the frustration on McCain’s face as Obama kept his cool, reasonably parrying the pathetic attempts by McCain to break his composure. Instead it was John McCain without composure though I hesitate to say he broke it as he didn’t have it to begin with. It was a sad attempt and throughout it McCain looked like nothing more than a petulant child.

The personal contempt that McCain has for Obama is both palpable and scary. I can’t recall seeing a worse job of concealing dislike, the sneers and hand waving and obvious anger seemed ridiculous compared to the centered Obama. At this point, I truly don’t understand how anyone could justify their support of John McCain, party and ideological brand aside, the man is quite obviously unhinged.

The choice in this campaign is almost laughable. For the Republicans, an obviously erratic and angry “maverick” that mimics George Bush on nearly every issue that matters and a beauty pageant runner-up who can barely string a sentence together and has to be hid from the media for fear that she’ll say anything that wasn’t scripted by her handlers. And for the Democrats, a former editor of the Harvard Law Review, composed, coherent and educated and a six-term Senator with a history of speaking his mind and the experience to lend a reasoned voice to a young leader. How anyone could look at John McCain and Sarah Palin and truly believe that they should be stewarding this country is beyond me.

We find ourselves standing on a dangerous precipice these days, one that we could have scarcely imagined eight years ago. We are fighting two wars while our economy teeters on the edge of collapse. There is truly a culture war raging in this country, between a majority that wants to see America return to its place as a beacon of civilization and world respect and a minority that uses nationalistic fervor to reminisce for a 1950’s utopia that never existed. They say that you should respect other people’s opinions but I find it harder and harder every day to respect the culture of war-mongering greed and Naziesque patriotism that has wrested the Republican Party from the hands of the real conservatives.

There isn’t really a choice in November. A vote for John McCain is a vote for hate and bigotry and an America that only exists in the fantasies of neo-conservatives and fundamentalists. A vote for Barack Obama is probably the only way to save us from ourselves. Don’t take the low road.