Friday, October 10, 2008

Election Rant

I just finished singing “Row row row your boat” to my son for about an hour, trying to get him to sleep. It worked, but it was a bit onerous - unless one considers their responsibilities to progeny, then it seems a small issue. I reflected on what I was doing before my son was born.

I recently reviewed a journal entry from four years ago. It’s amazing how much things change in four years -at least that is what I thought until I read an item in a rhetorical e-mail about McCain. It asked what you were doing on September 11th, 2002 and what you had done up until last week. That was how long McCain was a POW. The impetus was to get you to vote for McCain based on his strength of character for having survived that long as a Prisoner of War. While I have tremendous respect for McCain, I don’t think this is an election issue.

I think, hold on, this is earth shattering, that the economy might be a little bit important right now. I was never a big Clinton fan, and have no facts to back it up, but it seems like we were doing pretty well economically under Bill. Maybe we need to lay off being the world cop and tend to business at home. I know we are spending a tremendous amount of money to protect and develop democracies around the world, but don’t we need to TCB at home a little bit? You can bring a horse to water, but...

Many would argue that Mr. Clinton benefited from Senior’s policies, that there is a lag in the economy and that Bill reaped what Senior had sewed. Those pundits would further assert that W is now reaping the seeds that Bill sewed. Lewinsky jokes aside, this argument is fallacious due to Senior’s tenure only lasting four years. To extend the metaphor, W is reaping what W sewed based on eight years in office, just as Bill reaped what he sewed based on eight years in office.

One of the questions the voting public needs to ask itself is, “Is McCain that much different than W? Is Obama that much different than Bill?” Ultimately, I predict Obama will be our next president. I am not sure if that is good or bad. I think that only four years of his leadership will provide accurate insight. By then, we might all be congratulating ourselves on a great choice, or rallying behind the next great hope for democracy. Only time will tell.

Until then, I will keep investing in the market - after all, it’s got nowhere to go but up - and praying for an administration that makes the world better for my kids. Ultimately, that is everyone’s goal and we should recognize that we live in a country that allows us to pick our leaders. No matter how flawed the process may be - think hanging chads - it is the most democratic process in the world today.

Peace.

Spike