A President for a Time of Panic

I particularly agree with how your post ends on your own site.

The immature are fearful, and so many who are fearful are merely the immature -- and the exploitable, and exploited, as we're going to see. The hype about current conditions is not an encouraging sign. [sigh] Plus, as grown-ups already have long known, change does not ever necessarily mean improvement.

I was talking with some people the other day about McCain and how they were leaning towards him but noticed lately that volitility in his temperament mentioned in this article. They agreed when I pointed out that our foreign allies will basically turn their backs on us if we elect another maverick.

Did I say "another maverick"? Yes. Dubya has acted so "mavericky" (emphasis on "icky") throughout his campaign that he has literally, with Richard "Dick" Cheney, unbranded the US Constitution and retooled it to their own liking; that is to say, the liking of the BigOil monopoly.

McCain is just another hotheaded version of Bush; perhaps even more impetuous, foolhardy, evil and rash than Dubya and Cheney combined. You see, John McCain is angry. He is angry that we didn't stay in Vietnam and "win" against the invisible and relentless waves of the Vietcong. So now he is reliving his doomed fantasy of winning Vietnam by staying in Iraq against the invisible and relentless waves of suicide bombers; and he is determined to take us with him come hell or high water.

I explained to my friends that McCain will indeed be a maverick. Erratic, myopic and with a four-decades old axe to grind, his touchy temper, he indeed will be a lone figure among world leaders for sure. Allies will be as scarce as slush funds in the coming years under his endless vendetta to "win" the Vietnam war. It is remarkable he survived being imprisoned in Vietnam; but unfortunately I think he's carrying a bit of a warp from it. Pent up anger has no place in the Whitehouse this next term.

I think McCain needs a mental evaluation to see if he truly has gotten over the anger of not winning a fruitless war. His anger is the litmus test to see if he is truly fit to lead.

DLS-

People have real reasons to be fearful-- unlike when their fears were hyped by visions of a mushroom cloud that our leaders knew to be patently false. Their hard earned nest eggs are disappearing little by little as the stock market continues to fall. If your pension or kid's college fund were threatened- wouldn't you be just a little afraid?

Some will vote based on fears and negatives (unfavorables). Others on ration, hope and consideration of the issues. Obama is not wrong IMO to pursue the latter voters as he has all along, but also defend against attacks to protect his favorables, and lest he be on the defensive all the time, toss out some McCain unfavorables for those who choose to vote that way.

The GOP created the "fear and smear" politics we find ourselves in (coming from someone who has been called by our president, "unpatriotic" "with the terrorists" a "defeatocrat" cut and run tax and spend commie sympathizer etc). Sure you'd like the Dems to be highminded and above the fray. Me too. But there IS a portion of the electorate who is immune to that approach and it would be foolish to write them off. So, like it or not, we get both candidates trying to raise the other's unfavorables.

The big difference is that Obama's charges against McCain happen to be true.

K. Ritter: I have been possibly the only one who has said so far on this site that the major issue of concern (that should already have been recognized by many others, but sadly, that is not the case) is the prospect of deflation, which obviously cannot "can't happen here" any more than was true in Japan (nor was it predicted ahead of time). As it is not a complete surprise -- we've been in a bubble for years, after all, first with stocks and then with real estate, which has been true throughout the developed world, incidentally, not limited to the USA -- there is no need for any kind of overreaction. That some may be worried or angry (as the book I'm reading again this week that discusses both the bubble and the deflation and the need to fight it puts it, this housing bubble is ending in tears), is not surprising, but there is no reason for stupid herd mentality or exploitation (once again) of ignorance or poor behavior or character development among much of the public.