As we all chatter about the significance of McCain's so-called campaign suspension, I'm reminded of the greatest parenting advice I ever got.
"There is no such thing as parenting," Chicago paramedic friend Ed Reardon told me before Scout was born. "You know what your kids get? They get you, for 18 years. If you're good, that's good. If you're bad, that's bad."
I don't know who we're going to vote for, but especially thanks to the financial crisis happening in the middle of this campaign, I'm pretty sure we're by November, going to have a pretty good idea of what it is we're going to get.
I sure hope you're right, David. At this point I don't want to vote for anybody. No choice seems like the best choice, because I don't feel like there's a good choice to make. Isn't "settling for" a presidential candidate, making a lesser-of-two-evils choice, rather like settling for a friend or spouse? Resigning yourself to the impossibility of doing better and thus resorting to what seems better than the worst?
This is depressing.
Posted by: Joan H. | September 24, 2008 at 06:33 PM
I don't agree, Joan. I'm not so disillusioned with Obama. Why are you?
Posted by: David Murray | September 24, 2008 at 06:36 PM
And I think settling for a spouse and settling for a friend are two different things.
And settling for a politician is a BASIC fact of life.
We are grown-ups, are we not?
Posted by: David Murray | September 24, 2008 at 06:40 PM
It's never felt so personal since Sarah Palin was added to the Republican ticket. Maybe it's supposed to feel this way, I don't know. Maybe when the country was just born, when the population was small like Alaska's is, when everybody knew each other, or knew someone who knew the candidate--maybe then it felt like the big decision it's feeling like for me this year.
Maybe after I listen to the debates I'll feel reassured.
Posted by: Joan H. | September 24, 2008 at 07:27 PM