I haven't discussed much political stuff on LJ (haven't discussed much of ANYTHING lately), and my LJ and fi-uh friends overlap greatly, but I finished writing this and thought, damn, this makes a pretty good LJ post.
Thanks to
rdbutts for the inspiration, by the way.
Elections in a democracy are -- I dare say they even need to be -- about personal characteristics, much more than about policy or philosophy. Legislation has to be brought up by Congress first, and by the time all the negotiations are done it will not resemble anything envisioned by its creator. However, if we can get an idea of where the person's heart is, we can get a better idea of how they will react to bills that have been passed by Congress and how they will enforce the law.
McCain's service to this country is certainly admirable, but let me just quote one Malcolm Reynolds: "In my estimation, every man ever got a statue made of him was one kind of sonnuvabitch or another." Now I don't mean this quote applies in any way to John McCain, but I think we need to be reminded that a person's qualities shown during extraordinary times do not necessarily make him fit to lead during much more ordinary times.
Now we have to consider several aspects of a candidate's personality before we go ahead and judge them. The first would be intention. What direction does the candidate want to take the country in? Both candidates have indicated that they wanted to heal partisan divisions, and I feel that both of them are earnest in that sentiment. I believe Obama's tax proposal is probably better for the country than McCain's. Both of them also appeared to have indicated they want to shift attention from Iraq to Afghanistan, although I believe Obama made that statement first. However it seems that Obama is more in favor of international dialogue (especially in dealing with Iran) than McCain, which I feel is the better approach.
The second aspect that needs to be considered is intelligence. It may be elitist of me as a Dartmouth student (albeit a poor one) to say this, but John McCain's now well-known academic performance at the US Naval Academy does not bode well in this category. A lot has been made of his gaffes -- the Sunni/Shia thing, the $5 million mark for "rich" Americans, and the general assessment of the economic crisis that faces us -- although I have to say the "57 states" quote from Obama isn't particularly encouraging.
The last but not least aspect that I feel is important is leadership ability. This is one quality that I feel both candidates excel in. McCain of course has his name tagged on the most significant piece of campaign reform legislation in recent memory, while Obama has also led several bipartisan efforts on innovative efforts to contain nuclear proliferation, reform immigration laws (collaborating with John McCain, it should be noted), and create transparent government.
I think the assessment of the two major-party candidates by these criteria clearly favor Senator Obama in this election, and I can see how a lot of Americans will differ, especially on the first point. Nevertheless, I do hope people do consider personality traits other than whether the juicy stuff that the media likes to focus on.
P.S. I am still working my way through the RNC videos on CNN -- I'd like to get a better idea of what the Republican Party is trying to tell the American people.