A Double Whammy--times two

Maybe you've noticed.  I let up on politics for the past few days.  The reason was a double whammy---from within and without.

From without--My son Daniel called to tell me how angry I sounded with my constant ranting (i.e. Palin + McCain= Pain).  Of course he was right.  So I stopped  (at least I tried) in favor of a kinder and gentler approach.  And then a few days later, Daniel pointed out that it's not exactly kind and gentle to compare John McCain to Mike Tyson.  Right again.  So I stopped ranting again.

And it was easier this time to stop since I was getting the same message from within.  This whole campaign season has me fired up.  And the way I sound on my blog is the way I sound in person.  Only worse.  The other night I was at a beautiful dinner which briefly turned ugly once politics "reared its head".  It turned out that the way we happened to randomly seat ourselves ---had lined up a whole row of Obama fans on one side facing an entire row of McCain supporters across the table.  I almost came to blows with the woman across from me, who I really like, and who is really a good soul, as long as we're discussing anything else.  Something snapped, I felt the beginning of burnout, and some of the juice for political blogging started slowly leaking out like air out of a balloon.

Meanwhile it's not just my balloon that's deflating.  Just like me, McCain got his own double whammy--from within and without.

From without, he's getting pounded by events.  The Palin panel result in Alaska didn't help.  But he was tanking anyway thanks to the economy.  No one thinks he has the ability to get a handle on it---not even him.  And every day the news gets worse, McCain watches his White House hopes sink faster than the stock market.  He's a competitive guy and doesn't want to lose so he's getting more desperate. 

Which leads to his second whammy--from within.  Because no one is doing more to destroy his own campaign than John McCain. 

Conducting the type of negative attacks which are the current focus of his campaign, allowing the hostiity and hysteria to build at rallies, and worst of all, condoning all this in a time of great divisiveness is possibly the least patriotic thing he could do, completely undermining his campaign slogan, Country First.

This attitude was pointed out today by my local paper, the Monterey Herald, which is a long distance in every possible way from the New York Times.  Today the Herald withdrew its previous support of McCain and endorsed Obama.  

Which is just another sign of the rapidly spinning downward spiral of McCain the campaign and McCain the man.   McCain has become his own worst enemy, damaging his campaign, and damaging our country and our ability to move forward together.  In a time of economic uncertainty and a climate of fear, nothing is scarier than a leader who is out of control.

Maybe John McCain needs the same thing that helped me: a wakeup call from Daniel.

Comments

[ByJane]

And I said pretty much the same thing on my blog today: "The John McCain I Might Have Voted For."