Driven to post by this interminable campaign

A volunteer for the Obama campaign called me this evening and was appalled when I stated that I was no longer interested in volunteering and that, furthermore, I would not be supporting Obama's candidacy.

Everyone assumes that means I'm supporting McCain, but that's simply ridiculous. Seeing photographs of McCain and Palin standing next to each other, it looks as though some demented senior has been photographed next to his indulgent nursing home adminstrater. They both sound like poorly scripted ventriloquist's dummies in their speeches. (I suspect it has something to do with the fact that neither of them ever actually say what they think or feel about any issue, but instead parrot whatever it is they're told to by Republican party hacks for the play it will get on Fox News or talk radio. Or from conservative pulpits.) It doesn't help that her political career in Alaska requires no media savvy whatsoever, as the standards in the last frontier have almost reached Nixonian standards.

Truthfully, if I abandoned myself fully to cynicism and relinquished my belief in the ideal of competent and sound government, I could happily volunteer for the Obama campaign. It's a thought that I'm still kicking around. I guess I could put my thoughts like this: the Bush presidency is an example of malfeasance. I believe an Obama presidency would be an example of misfeasance, or even non-feasance. More simply put, Bush did wrong on purpose; Obama will either do wrong accidentally, or will do nothing. I'm not sure which of those is worse.

What it boils down to is that I don't see Obama as a leader, a policy wonk, a champion, a fighter, an inspiration or a servant. It requires some combination of those roles to be the sort of president I think we need right now. However, as the adage goes, we don't get the government we need, we get the government we deserve. Clearly the same can be said of candidates.