on the election...

I think I am going to vote FOR Barack Obama. This may be the first election where I am not voting against a candidate, in a long time. My reasons for this are too numerous to articulate in this article (but I may try in future blogspots). But here is one reason:

LEADERSHIP IN A CRISIS:
The Market meltdown posed problems for McCain, since he had been a big believer in de-regulation for years. Clearly, actions that needed to be taken in this situation were unprecedented, and left McCain having to take a stance--support a Socialist, or at best, Keynesian-style solution, or watch as his supply-side ideology melted down everyone's retirement savings. So McCain decided to avoid the question, and show his leadership by rushing to Washington. The Campaign (I say this because I have a hard time believing that McCain himself would attempt such a clearly choreographed stunt) decided to try to win some political points, by showing McCain's "leadership in a crisis", and having McCain suspend everything, cancel the debates, and rush to Washington and save the day. He invited Obama to do the same.

I remember this, because I was driving home, listening to POTUS '08 on XM Sattelite Radio, and I was thinking, "why is he doing this NOW? He said a week ago that the fundamentals of our economy are strong. I thought he was full of it then, but if he really wanted to do something, why wait until the deal was basically in place, (as it had been rumored to have been at the time)?"

I flipped the radio to FM, and I remember hearing Jay Severin screaming something about how this was a brilliant move by McCain and how Obama had no way out. He would have to follow McCain's lead, and look like an als0-ran.

Then an hour later, Obama got out of it. With a very calm, shrewd maneuver. He said that Presidents should be able to handle more than one thing at a time, and he would not suspend the debate, or panic.

Obama called McCain's bluff. McCain blinked. McCain showed up at the debate. He didn't even "Rush" back to Washington, as David Letterman made clear. He didn't really suspend the campaign (other than not giving any stump speeches. Others have made it clear that the campaign offices stayed open, and there were news reports on Huffington Post that showed that McCain ads were still running during the "suspended campaign"). Basically, McCain created an environment where he appeared to have no grounding in handling such a challenge.

Obama, on the other hand, did not get riled. He may not have rode in to save the day, a la John Wayne, but he calmly executed the support-building tasks to help the situation, and get a bill passed. When things deteriorated, Obama said that people shouldn't panic, and started to suggest sensible approaches to stabilizing the situation (ex. a $250k limit on FDIC deposits).

This was not lost on the public. While it could be said (and HAS been said by the Joe Scarborough's and Pat Buchannan's of the world) that McCain has lost his lead due to just being a Republican during the stock market drop, I would say that his own behavior did not contriubte to the cause. I don't disagree with either of their points of view, but I wouldn't go as far as to say McCain would be winning today, were it not for Fannie Mae, or Freddie Mac.

The problem for me was that trying times test the mettle of leaders. McCain has made that a central theme of his candidacy. However, when the times got tough, we got to see the candidates in action. In my opinion, it wasn't even close. McCain showed how he would REACT in a crisis, and Obama showed how he would LEAD in a time of crisis. McCain showed how he would FIGHT in a time of struggle, Obama showed how he would LISTEN in a time of struggle (with a team of economic advisors at his side, including Warren Buffett and Robert Rubin).

I think I am ready for leaders who are ready to listen, rather than reactors who are ready to fight.