We need to start framing this election around the issue of leadership

[geiger]

Leaders need to put a vision out there that shows we have a realistic shot at solving our problems. I think, in an ultimate attempt to disrail Obama's candidancy, the Republicans are cynically attempting to disrail any attempt of hope for the future. And, if I weren't a student of history, and if I hadn't recently signed on to a doctoral program in educational leadership, I don't think I would have "got it." But. the tide has turned, and it can even "turn" more dramatically. George Lakoff, in a book called "The Political Mind," delineates why people vote emotionally and not based on "the facts" as we liberals think we are so good at delineating. We as liberalswant to believe that if you give people good information, they will make the right decision. But that's not how our emotional minds work.

John McCain has,effectively, in his own mind, put himself out of possible contention to be President now, albeit consciously or unconsciously. People are mad, number one. And speaking of number one, I have a twelve-year old son who, instead of reveling in football and superior academic experience, is asking me "how these fuckers are going to pull it off." He already knows, however good a person he is, he is fucking SCREWED." My answer to him, all this talk of bipartisanship is nonsense. Democrats need to delineate how their plan will actually help this country remain the leader of the world.

Years ago when I was married to a psychologist, I read another book which I think was called "The Mask." In that book, I learned that captives, out of a natural self-preservation instinct, often go through a process clinically described as "identifying with the aggressor."

McCain's reaction to the Wall Street situation and his own choice of running mate show that he is instinctively running for cover. In deference to his service and his attempt to be an honorable public servant, I wish for his sake and all of ours, that he would just send up the white flag. He can't be President; he just can't. He copuld have made an effective Vice-President or Cabinet member, but not President.

I remember several months ago my mother, who is an officeholder in her local Republican party, saying that she just couldn't come to terms with McCain being President because "that prisoner of war experience had to have left him odd in the head."

Her comment seared my soul. At that moment I thought, how can anyone have such disrespect and disregard for a war hero. Despite the fact that I had already become an Obama supporter. At the time, I was thinking, even though I know people who know people that think McCain is a hothead and egomaniac, that McCain's experiences as a prisoner of war had to have made him stronger as a person, not "damaged," as my mother implied. But now I know I was wrong. My mother thinks Obama is the anti-Christ, but we know how scary and wrong that is, too.

Obama, I think, is a self-trained leader and problem-solver. He has the learned capacity to put life's events in perspective, and now I'm glad he wrote his books. He has self-inight that McCain has never had the chance to develop. Maybe if got someone to give him a quick refresher course about leadership, that would give him a boost. He could absorb it quickly. That's the only thing I saw missing from his response to the "debate" last night.