I’ve had my reservations with Obama during the primary, but now that he’s the presumptive Democratic nominee, the choice boils down to just Obama and McCain. I do my best to give McCain the benefit of the doubt, but the more I dig into his issues and get to know the people around him, the more I get wary about a potential McCain presidency.
Here’s a case point: Bob Herbert’s recent op-ed on the NYTimes.
"John McCain, whose Straight Talk Express ran out of gas long ago,
tried to paper over the implications of Mr. Gramm’s unseemly outburst
this week about the very real suffering that has descended on millions
of Americans. “Phil Gramm does not speak for me,” said Senator McCain.
“I speak for me.”
"But the truth is that Mr. Gramm, a close friend
of Senator McCain’s for many years, has had a very loud say in the
economic policies of the McCain presidential campaign. And those
policies are an extension of the G.O.P. orthodoxy that is threatening
to sink the ship of state, even as the very wealthy are dancing
mindlessly to the music of another Gilded Age. ….
"What does it say about John McCain’s judgment that this guy was one
of his top — and possibly his pre-eminent — economic adviser? What does
it say about Mr. McCain’s judgment that in 1996, he believed Phil Gramm
was the best choice to be president?
"The biggest failing of both
parties in this presidential campaign has been the unwillingness to be
forthright with the public about the true extent of the crises facing
the country. The federal government and ordinary Americans are up to
their eyeballs in debt. Much of the financial sector is in deep
trouble, with previously blue-chip companies wobbling along on legs as
rubbery as a bad check." [read more]
I don’t believe in choosing the "lesser of the two evils" in this election because neither of them is evil. Neither of them is perfect. Neither of them is the messiah. Neither of them is the radical change that they promise to be. But it’s obvious to me that one of them is better than the other. At least that’s what my political brain tells me.