Blink?

Blink. It's an interesting word. One little word can mean a lot. For example, Blink was the title of a best selling book by Malcomlm Gladwell. The subject of his book was decision making. He relates various examples about how we can make snap decisions based on our experience. His premise is that we can often make quick decisions based on our frame of reference. This is how emergency room doctors triage a mass casualty situation; it is how experienced police officers decide whether or not to use lethal force in a tense situation; and it is how fighter pilots decide whether a boggy is friend or foe while flying at Mach speed.

Blink also has another meaning. In the context of a confrontation, a mano on mano situation, the first one to blink, right or wrong, is the first one to back down. This definition reaches into our most basic primordial instincts. Every animal trainer knows that the alpha dog doesn't blink. If you blink, you signal that you are backing down, and certainly anyone who did so would be signaling weakness.

So how does this all relate to America First? Well let's start with Mr. Bush who didn't blink, but didn't think either, when he decided to get us into the "War on Terror" by invading Afghanistan. He didn't blink when he looked at Sadam and decided to invade Iraq. He hasn't blinked when facing down Congress on torture, FISA legislation, taxes and any number of issues. No matter whether it was foreign policy or the economy, let it be known that he never backed down no matter what.

Now we have John McCain, the old fighter pilot, who in a blink of an eye made the decision to put Sarah Palin on the Republican ticket as his VP. With little or no vetting he just pulled the trigger on the favored candidate of the far right "value voters" crowd. Did he blink or didn't he? When Sarah was asked by Charlie Gibson in her only interview with the press if she had any reservations about her qualifications, she emphatically told Charlie that she didn't blink when she was asked to be VP. She said that she was on a mission and couldn't afford to blink.

So now the question is "How will the voters blink in November?" Will voters make a snap decision to elect our next president and vice-president? Will they shoot from the hip like the old fighter pilot without much due diligence or thought, or will the experience of not blinking over the last eight years inform that split-second decision in the voting booth? Will voters simply resort to their animal instincts and not back down from ideology, or will they take a measured approach to size up the situation first like an experienced emergency room physician?

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times, its just a blinking shame. It would be a blinking shame on all of us if we made the wrong decision this time.