There are enough lunatics in the world who would like to destroy the power of America; a man seeking the office of the leader of the free world isn’t the one who should be demeaning a former president as he seeks the presidency.

But when he did, Obama  showed me that Barack Obama’s personal quest for power overrode his commitment to serve the good of the people as President of the United States.  

There is no doubt in my mind that Obama is an intelligent man, but he’s character flawed. He talks a good game to be sure, and his leadership skills seem potent although I think his skill is like that of the candidate that was George W. Bush, more charm than substance, his power to invoke the result of some sort of magic potion served up to the people rather than true leadership.

Likeability is not the reason to elect a president. Did this country learn nothing from the tragedy that has been the presidency of George W. Bush?

Apparently, not.

And what of John McCain?

I strongly believe that John McCain is both ready and able to serve as President of the United States. He is at his core a man of honor and dignity. He has in the past proven to be a true maverick. We know he is capable of working both sides of the aisle because he has crossed the aisle repeatedly during his career and been successful in bridging party differences when others have not.

And, I agree with McCain that finishing the War in Iraq rather than simply pulling out our troops is important, but not because we need to “win.” But instead because we must keep our troops in the region near the oil fields that today, if we’re not smart, could ignite the fuse that will end the world dominance of the United States of America.

We must address the reality that as long as we continue to need oil and in doing so give our dollars to foreign countries -- many who don’t like us -- we risk the great American experiment. Have we not been selling our souls to the devil?

Still, knowing this I cannot vote for John McCain. McCain says he is not George W. Bush, but for all his talk of being a maverick he offers the country only more of the same.

His first test as a new kind of Republican would have been to stand up to the Christian Right that controls the Republican Party; he didn’t do that, which for me muted every fight he’d had with his own party in the past.

I cannot vote for a man who thinks he has the right to impose his religious beliefs on the rest of us. McCain has had maverick moments to be sure, but that was then, and this is now. Today John McCain is a conformist…not the breed of man on which this great nation of ours was built.

Barack Obama opposed the Iraq War, a political gesture in my opinion, similar to his vote of “present,” a part of the narrative that would become his credential when he ran for the American presidency.

There used to be a time when experience counted for something in this country; that was before the Democratic Party decided that getting elected at any cost is what counts, a lesson sadly learned from the Republican Party.

And what about Hillary Clinton? Of course, she is no more perfect a candidate than the others, but one thing Hillary Clinton offers is something the two men who became their party’s nominees don’t: the courage of her convictions.

She has never wavered from her core beliefs nor changed her values to suit others; even in defeat. When she saw her dreams lost to Barack Obama’s, she stood up like a lady and she went on the trail full steam ahead to get the man she hopes will do all he can to bring her own ideology to fruition.

Of course, Hillary Clinton has ulterior motives. Surely, she’s keeping her options open for a future presidential run. Still stumping for the man who beat her more than any other defeated candidate has done for another, says more about Clinton than it does about Obama, whose hubris was so grand that he mislead the American people into believing he was actually considering Clinton for his vice president when he wasn’t.

Hillary Clinton is a woman of true character and that’s the kind of American this country needs as its president.

Sadly, whether it’s McCain or Obama who gets the key to the front door of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue that’s not what we’ll get. Instead, we will have elected, yet one more time, the wrong person for the job. 

Even so, let’s hope the next four years prove better than the previous eight.

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