Fire The Campaign

This was the advice of arch-conservative, William Kristol, in a NY Times column that he writes on a weekly basis. You know..... that liberal NY Times that has given one of the most influential Republican mouthpieces a weekly platform? Anyway, "Fire The Campaign" was Kristol's solution for John McCain to win the election only three weeks away. In one sense, I agree with him for John McCain's sake, but it is likely too little and too late.

How the candidates run their campaigns is also the most likely indicator of their competence to govern. From the beginning, John McCain has been on a roller coaster. He hand picked known Republican operatives, mostly lobbyists or former lobbyists, and put them in key positions. He had to fire some or push them behind the scenes because they were either outright incompetent or had a conflict of interest with their lobbying gigs: Phil Graham, Charlie Black, and Carley Fiorina just to name a few. The ones that he still has running his campaign are only demonstrating their utter incompetence at running a large organization. They also demonstrate their total lack of any deceny and principles as they orchestrate the innuendos and false attacks against Barack Obama. Contrast this with the Obama campaign which has been a model campaign from the start. They amazed everyone by beating the well organized and well financed Clinton machine. Even William Kristol admits that McCain's campaign "is totally overmatched by Obama's. The Obama team is well organized, flush with resources and the candidate and the campaign are in sync." I couldn't have said it better. But what this all goes to show is that Obama has demonstrated the capacity to lead and manage a complex organization, while John McCain has only demonstrated incompetence. Who do you want running the country?

Kristol goes on to throw everything but the kitchen sink into his argument to "Fire the Campaign." He blames the media, which in my opinion has been very easy on both McCain and Sarah Palain, but this is a standard Republican tactic. He asserts that McCain isn't Bush, but McCain now fully embraces all of Bush's policies: tax cuts for the wealthy, deregulated health care, and an bellicose foreign policy. He also points to McCain' readiness to be Commander-in-Chief which may be true if you like the ultra conservative, neocon policies like pre-emptive war, no diplomacy, trash the UN, use military force to solve every international problem. The one thing that Kristol doesn't claim for the demise of the McCain campaign are these failed policy positions which got us into the mess we are in now. Perhaps Kristol should look in the mirror because it was Kristol and his peers who masterminded the same policies that John McCain has been forced to run on by the lunatic right wing. Then they topped it off by foisting a totally unqualified running mate on him: Sarah Palin. Having her and her husband anywhere near the seat of government is a very scary proposition. Now they are not so happy that this isn't working. Guess what? it's the policies stupid!

Obama is the best chance for America right now. It is becoming clearer to thinking Americans who objectively look at the policies and his demonstrated capacity for pure leadership and sound judgement. As someone who has voted many times for Republican presidential candidates in the past, I say we can no longer afford their self-serving and destructive policies. I will go one better than William Kristol: "Fire The Campaign and His Candidates!" You will get the opportunity to do that on November 4th. Mark your calendar. It is now time to put America First and elect Barack Obama and Joe Biden.