Let's get the election over with

Last night I was on the phone with my mom and told her I was going to be watching the Obama infomercial. Following is an email she sent me along with my response. I love my mother dearly but could no longer remain silent when she and other family members seem to so easily buy into the false, out of context allegations against someone who I hope in the next 5 days is the next President-elect of the United States. Anyway, it was a chance to write a short essay about my feelings.

On Oct 30, 2008, at 9:40 AM, "Mom" wrote:

RIGHT OBAMA AND HIS ADVISORS----- THE REVERAND AND I USE THT TERM LOOSELY-------JEREMIAH WRIGHT! AND OTHERS!!!!!! AREN'T YOU JUST A LITTLE CONCERNED?

On Oct 30, 2008, at 10:30 AM, Mark wrote:

Hi Mom,

I debated whether to send this, but your message kind of set me off. Just a few thoughts.

I'm not concerned at all. We all have nutty associates in our past, and it doesn't define us. Wright lost a screw along the way but wasn't always like that. Sure throwing Wright under the bus as soon as some of this stuff surfaced would have been the right thing to do politically, but personally I also think it would be hard to immediately disown your pastor.

Listen, I respected McCain back in 2000, and he certainly would have been a better President than what we got. But his campaign this time around has been nothing but lies, deceit, and devoid of any new ideas on how to run the country. His judgement has become questionable (Palin, etc) and his knee jerk and impulsive reactions to almost any new situation and challenge is more than a little worrisome. Back in 2000, the Bush campaign destroyed McCain with some pretty underhanded tactics, tactics using lies, smears and innuendo that he absolutely abhorred.

At the time, McCain essentially said that he would never run such a campaign--he was too honorable to get down in the mud like that. However, for this campaign he ends up hiring the same people and running the same kind of campaign. Where's the honor and honesty in that? And take the week of the initial financial meltdown. McCain "suspends" his campaign to make a big show that he was going to Washington to "handle" the situation. It was such a bogus, grandstanding stunt, and it backfired (even Republicans said he did nothing substantive to help the situation). Besides I want my President who thinks be able to handle more than one crisis at a time--it's called multitasking and that's what they have to do, everyday. And what do I want in a President? I want to be inspired, I want new ideas. Truly, what does McCain offer? The only thing we hear is innuendo about past acquaintances, phrases taken out of context, but nothing substantive about how we get out of the economic and foreign policy holes we're in.

And one last thing regarding Palin--I want our elected officials in such high offices TO BE SMARTER THAN ME. Not some nitwit who can't string two complete, grammatically correct sentences together without having them written out for her or memorized. But what really frosts me is her definition of real America and real patriotic Americans--it'sso narrowly defined and not inclusive of all Americans who love this country, regardless of race, religious and personal choice beliefs, or political affiliation. Her speeches are full of buzzwords that basically say Obama is unAmerican because (a) he's black and (b) has Muslim friends. I have Jewish, Arab, Hindi, gay, pro-choice friends....does that make me less of an American?

Love, Mark