RESPONSE TO 'DRRJP'

Submitted by DANIEL REDMOND (United States), Apr 2, 2008 at 21:22

Funny, but my own similar experience occurred quite a few years earlier when a previously unknown politician was called upon to speak at the Democratic National Convention on behalf of a fellow named Michael Dukakis. I remember thinking of the young governor of Arkansas---who droned on for a full forty-five minutes and received applause when he finally shut up (and mostly because he finally shut up)---that he looked and sounded far more presidential than the runty little Greek fellow from Massachussetts that the party had, to their later regret, annointed as their standard bearer in that year's election. I do recall thinking that the speaker, Bill Clinton, sounded a little phony but that he could probably win the election against Bush. Four years later he proved that he could do exactly that and, guess what, he turned out to be a pretty good president, if you discount the tawdry sex scandals that seemed to follow him wherever he went.

I suspect the same is the case with the young senator from Illinois. Obama is slick, perhaps even smoother than 'Slick Willy' himself, but I suspect that if elected he'll surprise us all by doing an excellent job. And in this year's election what are our alternatives? Would you rather hire Hillary Clinton with her silly little lies about imaginary sniper fire in Kosovo and that her parents named her after Sir Edmund Hillary? (In case you haven't heard, she was born in 1947 and Sir Edmund didn't ascend Mt. Everest until 1953. Until then, nobody had ever heard of him.) Hillary Clinton exudes a certain sense of entitlement to the White House that irritates a lot of people, myself included.

Or would you perhaps prefer John McCain, who vows to keep troops in Iraq for another century "if necessary"? McCain's a real genuine war hero and if we were conducting an election to hire 'the greatest POW of the 20th Century' he'd sure get my vote. But we're electing a president and I don't care two hoots what somebody did in Vietnam thirty-five years ago; I care about what they are going to do in the Oval Office now.

I'm predicting that Obama gets the nomination and that he trounces McCain at the polls next November.

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