Character and the Future of Our Nation

[nivenus]

There will be a presidential election in approximately two months, the first one in which an incumbent or vice president has not run for an incredible eighty years. Now's our chance to have a truly fresh start and who we pick will determine the path of our nation for perhaps the next decade or maybe the next twenty years or maybe the next fifty.

Comments

[prisoner__24601]

Honestly, from where I'm standing (which is right in the middle), the whole character thing is a wash. On one side you have a guy who went to a racist church for 20 years, hung out with people from the Weather Underground, and made cracks about guns and religion when he thought the plebeians weren't listening telling me that he's got the judgment to lead this country

[nivenus]

Okay, so you're sick of both sides which means that you can't bother yourself to vote on something you obviously think is important. Am I missing something here?

As for Iraq and a moral imperative - wars shouldn't be fought for moralistic reasons but for practical ones. In all practicality we've already lost this war. The surge is a patch up, nothing more, and it won't win us the war, particularly given the fact Americans are growing less and less patient.

If we stay for another 50 years, it won't make a damn bit of difference. We'll just waste more and more money on a war we're going to lose anyway. On a war we have lost. In fact - more people might die as a result since we'll be prolonging Iraq's ability to end the civil strife and result in the government that about 40% of the Iraqi people want - an islamist republic in the model of Iran.

As for flip-flopping there's a major difference here. On the one hand we have Obama, who's taken a position which is less popular (polls show most Americans would love to get out of Iraq

[prisoner__24601]

Part of the problem is that I just don't see the point. It's like a vote for either one of them is a vote for this ridiculous two party system that somehow Americans have gotten locked into. And since both sides have committed epic asshattery, it's difficult for me to get enthused about standing an hour or so in a voting line to vote for either of these twits

I understand where you're coming from

[nivenus]

Okay - you have a deal ;). We'll agree to disagree.

There are some things I do agree with you on. Though I myself am a liberal I often cringe at leftist bloggers and commentators who act with such a double standard. At one point they denounce Republican attacks on family and personal life and then the next they turn and do it themselves (i.e., most of the Palin smears). It's like they can't see that they themselves are looking at things in a black and white perspective.

I may fail at times in giving an equal side to everything. After all, I'm only human. But I do try. When I see a conservative commentary on an issue I care about, I don't flip away because I might not like what I hear. I listen and I think about it. And whenver I hear smears against a candidate, I try and check my facts before I spread them