Does This Election Mean as much to Them as it Does to Us?

I will vote for Senator McCain. But I don’t do it with relish.

by: randall nunn | published: 10 18, 2008

As I watched the televised excerpts of Senator McCain and Senator Obama at the Al Smith dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York, I felt more than a little anger. Reuters described it as Obama and McCain trading “wisecracks, not attacks” to a “glittering Manhattan crowd”. With the condition of the country as it is, and the stakes in this election what they are, the timing of the event was terrible.

There may be a time to sit down with your opponent and trade wisecracks and show that you can be cordial and pleasant despite political differences. Now is not that time. This election contest is headed toward the climax. Don’t trivialize the fight and the magnitude of the issues by dining in opulence with your enemy on the eve of the major battle.

The images of the “glittering Manhattan crowd” made me realize part of the source of my anger and unhappiness with the campaign. We, as a country, are in dire straits because too few of our representatives will fight for our interests with real passion. Our government has become a club where the elites can rub elbows with each other and live the good life at the expense of others. The real issues are ignored and common sense is ridiculed. Image and perception are valued above substance.

Senator McCain suspended his campaign and went to Washington when the economy first started falling apart. Maybe he should have suspended his attendance at the Al Smith dinner in New York on Thursday and continued his campaign—maybe even attacking his opponent for being a major contributor to the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage disaster. Clinking glasses with the “glittering” people in Manhattan while the country is floundering economically sends the wrong message.

Perhaps my reaction to this is overly sensitive. Maybe others don’t see this as evidence that Washington is out of touch. The campaign uses “Joe the Plumber” as a political issue but our political elites don’t really want to associate with him. After all, he is not as socially aware as they are and doesn’t truly understand the important issues of the day. The media would have us believe that only the political elites with staffs and sympathetic media consultants can understand the subtle nuances of such issues. And these same political elites led us into this maelstrom.

I will vote for Senator McCain. But I don’t do it with relish. I do so because the alternative is worse. The cause many of us fight for with our vote for Senator McCain is a cause somewhat different than that articulated by Senator McCain. Instead of an articulate champion representing our interests, we have a goody two-shoes who can find time in the last two weeks of the campaign to go on Letterman and crack jokes with his opponent while the finances of middle America are being shattered.

Somehow, I cannot imagine General Lee and General Meade sitting down together just before the final day at Gettysburg and having a drink and a cigar while trading wisecracks. Maybe this election won’t produce the carnage and destruction of Gettysburg. But then again, a country can be wrecked by ineffective and indecisive political leadership as surely as it can by an army. I will vote for Senator McCain, but it would make the experience so much more pleasant if he would lead the fight as though it means as much to him as it does to us.

Randall H. Nunn

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