Last night John McCain and Barack Obama met in what was touted as a Civil Forum, led by Rick Warren at Saddleback Church in California. I was excited to watch this program and found it quite interesting. Let me start off by saying that I am an uninformed voter. By no means am I well-versed on politics or on the detailed backgrounds of these two men. Part of that is because I simply do not have the time to dig into it. My family, my job, my faith and my hobbies take up enough of my time. Reading political articles in what spare time I do have does not interest me. The second reason that I am uninformed is because I find it hard to really get an unbiased opinion. The supposed “experts” on CNN and Fox News appear only to be interested in furthering their name and beliefs and are incapable of objective analysis. Those who are Democrats hate everything John McCain says and believes in and vice versa for Republicans and Obama (I’m generalizing here). Here is what I believe: Obama cannot be as great as people think he is and McCain can’t be as bad as people say he is. There has to be some middle ground and last night got my attention as potentially a chance to see who these men are. Warren asked some good questions. It wasn’t his job to interrogate and nail these two down for answers. If they answer his questions, you hopefully get to see a bit of their heart. If they don’t, you get to make up your own opinion. Personally, I thought that McCain came out much better than Obama. He spoke to the audience as well as Warren, which to me says that he is confident in his answers and is not afraid to be held accountable. Obama spoke almost solely to Warren, which some perceived as better because he was relaxed and conversational. Makes sense, except that there were several thousand people in the room to be acknowledged and addressed. Two questions stuck out to me. When asked their biggest personal moral failure, McCain uncomfortably, yet quickly, responded with the failure of his first marriage. Uncomfortable because he was unfaithful and accepts responsibility for a horrible act that hurt his supposed partner in life and doomed their marriage. Good answer. He made a bad decision, acknowledges it and accepts responsibility. Obama answered that he tried drugs and drank as an underage teen, mostly out of selfishness. Really? That is your greatest moral failure? Apparently you are nearing sainthood if your biggest moral failure is being selfish. You’ve gotta come with something better than that. The second question was regarding abortion and when human life begins. Obama dodged it by saying that to answer that, either from a theological or scientific perspective, was “above his pay grade.” Senators get paid $169,000, while the President earns $400,000. Will that be enough to qualify you to ansewr that question? An opinion on abortion should not decide whether or not you vote for a candidate, but to give such a weaksuck answer was incredible. McCain, almost before Warren finished the question, answered that life begins at conception. No ifs, ands or buts. End of discussion. Like it or not, that’s my belief. End of discussion.
Obama appeared all night to be pandering to both sides, hoping to not give either side a reason to abandon their vote for him, or apparently a reason to vote for him at all. I don’t think he was being dishonest, he just seemed to think through the potential consequences of each answer. I still do not know who Obama is or what he has done that makes him capable of handling the duties that come with being a President. Good public speaking and an endorsement from ultra-liberal Hollywood (how Hollywood became an expert on politics, I will never know) doesn’t equal good leader. McCain, on the other hand, doesn’t care (he cares about what you believe, but not what you think about him). He has his opinions and beliefs, is confident in them and unashamedly does not hide behind rhetoric. As President, that is a must. At the end of the day, you must make your decision, be confident in your decision and face what consequences may come — both good and bad. No President makes all good decisions. If you screw up, admit it and move on. You can’t sit around thinking, “well, if I do this then Nancy Pelosi is going to be extremely pissed off. On the other hand, Tom Ridge will be quite pleased, and I do have that meeting with him in the morning.” You must be well-informed (unlike me) by those around you, so that you can make decisions from a position of confidence and peace, not wavering trepidation. I’m not saying that McCain is without fault or that I am in agreement with him on every statement/issue. I, as of now, simply believe that I trust him more with decisions than I trust Obama. When all is said and done, Jesus is not a party member. He wants confident, compassionate leadership from somebody who will rely on Him for decisions to better the United States of America and mankind as a whole. He hates murder, AIDS and poverty. He loves the rich, the poor, the middle class, Republicans and Democrats, the famous and the marginalized. He has a plan for this nation that is bigger than McCain or Obama. That, in the midst of political positioning, is all that we can trust in.
