What’s More Important? The Rantings of Ministers or a Comparison of Obama’s and McCain’s Proposals on Iraq?

By Bill Cavala
A veteran of over 30 years in Sacramento

To the political junkies who read stuff like this, the emotional distance from politics enjoyed by most voters is almost unimaginable. But it’s true.

Most voters have by now seen dozens of “glimpses” of Barrack Obama and John McCain on a.m. and evening news shows. Most, however, have not spent five consecutive minutes listening to what they have to say. I suspect that the first time such attention will be paid is in the respective acceptance speeches of both nominees.

But while the characteristics of both candidates will be relatively new things to the vast majority of voters, they are already ‘old hat’ with the media. And that’s a real problem for both candidates. In their restless quest for “news”, the press corps will write about things that are “new” to them. Minor events will be woven into a narrative used to describe the campaigns that may have limited relevance to the interests of the electorate.

What are the issues of relevance to the voters?

Does America have a foreign policy? How would McCain and Obama change that policy?

The decline of the dollar’s value is directly related to $4 gas prices. What would each candidate do to alleviate that problem?

Is global warming a man-made problem susceptible to man-made solutions?

Which candidate is prepared to accept the economic costs to the US of addressing the global warming crisis?

While all now concede we’re in Iraq for fallacious reasons, we stay there because a dismembered Iraq will be easy prey to its militaristic neighbors and we have a stake in oil resources there, or something. The candidates should be clear on their policy and its’ justification.

Maybe the press corps knows the answers to these questions. Maybe they reported those answers last September. I admit that I wasn’t paying attention then. Most people weren’t.

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