When I was young, I was upset about some perceived slight or mishap. I ran to my father and told him that life wasn't fair. Without missing a beat, he said, "If life was fair, the first thing that happened to you after your born wouldn't be a slap on the butt that would make you cry." It taught me a valuable lesson about self-reliance and perseverance.
If we were looking for a President with a mind that was sharp and the ability to think in a clear, cogent and coherent manner, today, John McCain demonstrated that he is not the way to go. His less than logical evaluation of his moribund campaign will do nothing to shore up his supporters or bring a peaceful night's sleep to the citizens of this country.
We don't expect our candidates to be able to spout the philosophical precepts of Kant, Bentham or Locke or possess the brain power of an Einstein. Yet, after the damage that George Walker Bush has foisted upon this country, both domestically and around the world, one would like to believe that our candidates would be able to thoroughly evaluate their own shortcomings. It is reasonable to expect that the Democratic and Republican nominees would have noticed the current President's perceived intellectual potholes and try to avoid them at all costs.
But, John McCain doesn't appear to have paid attention.
"John McCain said Thursday that Barack Obama's poll numbers are rising as the economy seems to sink "because life isn't fair.
"He certainly did nothing for the first few days," McCain told Fox News Thursday. "I suspended my campaign, took our ads down, came back to Washington, met with the House folks and got on the phone, and also had face-to-face meetings."
- CNN.com, October 2, 2008"
This is the worst statement he or his running mate have uttered during the entire campaign. It is not only full of petulance and self-pity, it should serve to undermine support for his Presidential run in all demographics.
Senator McCain presents himself as a man of strength, honor and duty. He served his country as well as any person that has lived to tell the story. The horrific existence he survived was without a doubt a testament to courage and fortitude. The soldier that came home from the Hanoi Hilton was a true hero.
However, that man no longer walks the face of the earth.
"Life isn't fair."
No one would have blamed the returning McCain if he had uttered that phrase. If he had come back a depressed, shattered man, it would have been understandable. That McCain would be ashamed of this McCain.
The 2008 McCain wears blinders and does not see his mistakes. His roller coaster ride of a campaign has been marked by fits and stops, prayer-inducing decisions, indecision, tumbles, turns and turnover. Just look at a partial laundry list of the choices he has made:
1) He hired the same scorched earth, George W. Bush staff members that undermined his 2000 Presidential run. He took many of them on after firing some loyal, long time operatives.
2) He placed his campaign in the hands of more lobbyists than currently inhabit K Street while pledging to clean up Washington.
3) He named a less than one term governor from Alaska as his Vice-Presidential running mate after meeting her once and talking to her twice. He spent less time venting her than he spends at the home field of the Arizona Diamondbacks. But, then again, he owns a part of that team.
4) After securing the nomination in early March, he spent three out of every seven days off the trail. The time he spent campaigning from that time until the convention was the equivilent of George Bush's Presidential vacation schedule.
5) Lipstick on A Pig. Enough said.
6) He suspended the Republican Convention.
7) He suspended his campaign to help pass the Bailout package, then accused his opponent of phoning it in. He helped by making phone calls.
8) He supported the war and said we will be there for 100 years.
The truth is, for a man whose wife owns 7-11 houses, 13 cars and wears $500 shoes, life is very fair.
It is beyond any realm of reality for him to tell those who are still homeless and hungry because of the very hurricane that forced the cancellation of the convention that life isn't fair.
It is beyond any realm of reality for him to tell those who lost their homes, livelihoods and lives because of the economic crisis that life isn't fair.
It is beyond any realm of reality for him to tell those mothers and fathers that they lost their son or daughter in Iraq that life isn't fair.
John Sidney McCain needs to look in the mirror and reevaluate his priorities. Due to his own mistakes, misdeeds and mismanagement, he has fallen behind in the polls and will continue to do so. In the end, however, we are the ones that have made a mistake. It appears that he, not his running mate, is the one that does not have the intellectual wherewithal to be voted into the highest office in the land.