We The People Politics

99 days.

Both campaigns are gearing up for the long haul ahead, the big final stretch before September 4^th, when the media lets us know that we have only two months left.  Then it’s only 30 days until October 4^th, the last home stretch before the last week of campaigning, and then October 28^th, and then finally November 4^th.  Then we sit around until January waiting for “Dubya” to let go of the reins of his train-wreck of a presidency, and then we do our best to look forward.

Since both Barack Obama and John McCain have been trying to see who’s taller, in respect to who can change this country for the better, looking forward doesn’t sound so bad.  The issue is that for the next 99 days, both candidates will have to show Americans what they have to look forward to - whether or not they win.

What do we have to look forward to? Both candidates have issued their plans to tackle some major issues in this country, from the economy and gas prices to the war in Iraq and the showdown in Iran. Both candidates talk about change, and both argue that the other is the wrong kind of change (or, simply not a change at all).

What hasn’t changed, however, is how the end message.  Sure, the two major candidates have pushed their own agendas, but the end message is this:  Barack Obama is inexperienced, naive, and an unsuitable choice for president, and John McCain is an old, war-mongering, Bush-style, typical Washington insider who is just unsuitable for the presidency, so vote for the other guy.

Unfortunately, in American politics, the common message in most political campaigns is “Vote for this guy, and your lives will be caught up in a mire of debt, war, disease, famine, pestilence, etc, or you will pay out the ying-yang in taxes, or you will be trapped in a room full of chocolate chip cookies without a glass of milk…” - you get the idea.

What ever happened to voting for the candidate you feel has the best qualities, qualification, charisma, experience, etc., to lead the nation? When did Americans start voting against candidates, rather than for them?

Let’s look past the negative campaigning, the swift-boating, the mudslinging and the muck-raking to get down to what the true issues are, and pick a candidate based on their ability to address those issues.