Indecision 2008: Really, Who Are We Voting For?

We've heard it all before. We've seen all the posters, the billitan boards, the ads, the speeches, everything. We've heard promises, promises, and more promises. We have the two candidates: the experience, hardened veteran who will steer the country in the right direction all behind his youthful and likeable vice-president and the charismatic "youth" spouting off about change, change, and more change, promising if he can steer us in the right direction.
This Election was promised to be the election to end all elections, an historic moment where the people of America take part in an epic event, where we will either have our very first woman Vice-President or the first African-American president. But besides the race and the gender cards well pulled out, this is just a simple ordinary election. Nothing has changed, at all. The buttkissing has commenced. Promises are sprinkled into the crowd like gold coins, for the people only to find its only penny candy. The slander, mudslinging, verbal insults have been thrown by all sides, and even golden boy Obama is not above it. People are drawn to each side, one or the other, refusing to budge, refusing to cater to the other's opinion. All the coverage has been on the race and how good each candidate looks on camera. Nothing is new. In fact, it's a pretty standard election. The only difference is that now, the campaining technically started last year and the contestants are different. What's promised to be the election of the century has felt as tired, played out, and sappily camera heavy as American Idol. Instead, this time it's American Idol: President Edition. Tune in to see who's going to win.
And I know, it's not anythng new. I know none of this is. I know some of you might skim through this and snort, "Well, duh, what the heck?" It unnerves me though how heated, how tiring, how pointless this election is. And the thing is, many have celebrated this election, are looking forward to it, are praising how innovative it is, with innovative candidates. The truth is harsh but it's there. One of the truths is: this is not a new election. It's the same and the candidates are up to their old tricks.
To see things the way I see it, I'll observe the two candidates: McCain or Obama. Warning: the next contents have highly opinionated pieces. This is my opinion and no one else's. If people have a problem with what I have to say, you're entitled to your own. If you do feel so completely incesed with what I have to say, leave a post. If you like what I have to say, please leave a post as well. All opinions are welcome. This blog entry is to help get people to think.
First off, I'll start with McCain, the self-proclaimed maverick. All of the commercials indicate him as the seasoned veteran, the gungho pro who will battle Democrats and his own party to get to what is needed for the people and only the people. Biography shows and it's mentioned enough that he was a P.O.V. in Vietnam. He's a fighter, always and will be, and he will steer America through better times. I believe McCain is veteraned Republican, because that's what he is. That's what he's been. He can't claim to be a supreme Republicans because that's his party. You'll either alienate your followers or be recongized for hypocrisy.
McCain has tried to distance himself from Bush but that has been the theme behind Republicans this election year, distance yourself from Bush as much as possible. They've disowned him, dismissed him, ignored him, stopping short of explaining his actions. McCain's move is a smart one, after all, the Bush administrator has had so many foul-ups in the course of eight years. The problem is that McCain can distance himself from Bush, he can ignore Bush, file the man ahead in his head, but McCain CANNOT erase that the man has been president for eight years, and whom McCain shows a great deal of connection with, whose party has been lead under Bush's rule, uder Bush's thumb and like or not, instigated the rule for better or worst. McCain cannot hide that his tactics are really not so different from Bush's. He won't end Iraq and spend billions more dollars over there. McCain can't hide that the fact is: he's antichange. He won't change and probably doesn't even want to change. People joke that he's too old to competantly rule but while he appears competent, he won't allow much progress to happen. Republicans, after all, want things kept the same. Which is fine except when the status quo is wrong and needs correcting.
Then comes his choice of running mate, Sarah Palin. The choice was made so spontaneous, people whiplashed from their heads going 360 degrees, figuring out why McCain picked her. McCain's choice was actually smart or at least ingeniously simple. He needed a flashy candidate to take heat off of Obama's youthful and ethnic image. And the only way he felt he could do it was to pick a candidate that was equally youthful, someone who still had government experience, and a choice many would feel revolutionary or unpresidented. Hence Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska. What would have been smarter if he was willing to comprimise with Hilary Clinton, be a true maverick and pick someone from an opposite party and asked her to be a running mate, a woman who has shown Republican tendecies when it suited her.
The choice was obviously made in a rush. Palin doesn't mind and how could she? She might well be the first female President in the U.S.? What, she was going to say no? The problem with the last minute choosing was it was a last minute choice. I don't have much of a problem with Palin beyond the fact that she's. . .unknown. Besides being governor of Alaska, who is she? How has she significantly contributed to the overall government? What are her ideals? What is her plan if she does become President? Her image, even for a campain, is extremely shallow, hollowed, emptied out with nothing left but her youthful looks. The only thing so far that has come from her has been that her daughter has been pregnant and her husband is dodging a supeona over her alleged misuse of power back in Alaska.
So, what will happen with McCain/Palin? More of the same. He won't change and won't want to the country will be in an equal or marginally better than it is now. Iraq will still go on. Plans will be taken to raise taxes, and overall it will be a pretty standard Republican rule.
Now, I go to Obama, the charismatic youth. From day one and before he ever announced he announced Presidency, he was hyped as the poster President, relatively young, charisma that made the room spin, and people fainting from his words. He has hyped to an extent that goes beyond most candidates, raising his status to that of a high-profile celebrity. His image, when he announced Presidency, was plastered everywhere, and I mean everywhere. Oprah, late night tv, Saturday Night Live, more Oprah, newspapers, cards, biographical books, TIME, NEWSWEEK, radio, talk show hosts hailing him as a second coming; Hollywood backed full support of Obama as A-Listers like Tom Hanks, musicians like Will.i.am had his undenying and unfallable contributions. All that was needed was the Obama keychains and cereal. While McCain was fighting off the stigma as trying to assert himself as a geniune candidate beyond his party and age, Obama sat back and smiled his mega-watt grin that the camera captures as extra brightly white. People lauded over him because he seemed to be the posterchild of change, because of his diversity that appeared unheard of in the White House and the first that appeared to admit that change was needed.
Now that some of the hype has died down and I can finally think without media overcirculation, Obama appears to be a standard Democratic candidate. So, he's African-American? That's fine with me. Despite his insistence that his platform wasn't going to be about race, his team or media seemed pretty fond of bringing it up. That's not what bothers me. What bothers me is that despite his high watt public personality, he doesn't show any intitative. About his plans, he doesn't have a platform, at all. Nor does he says much about it. He promises change, then some more change, and then some more change. Change is good, change is very good, that's all he seems to say. He stands for nothing. What he stands on is a quicksand of lovely promises and pamplets. It would be nice if he actually stood for something solid. It's not just that he's inexperience, he's experienced enough to play the game with a charm and grace his opponents don't pull off. He pulls out the candidate handbook of political saavy: say as little as possible and only what's convienent.
About Joe Biden, Obama's running mate, it's was also a simplicity reason as to why he was chosen. If McCain picked Palin to make himself look good, Obama does the same; this time though, Obama's trying to erase the criticisms of his obvious political youthfulness with someone who has played the game for a long time. Was it the right choice? Don't know. Biden is experienced but. . .Obama's the one that's going to have head title, not him.
What's going to happen with Obama/Biden? Iraq's not going to be resolved quickly and Obama hasn't spoken much on it. The economy will still be the same. It's hard to judge what Obama's presidency will be like, because he hasn't shown any technical competency as to how to run the country or given any ideas on how to iniate how to run it.
McCain and Obama. They are your usual candiates, up the usual tricks, making the usual promises. It's amazing how little politics have change. Will it get better? Probably not. I argue against the two of them because they both are typical candidates people are being bought into believing are radically invogariting.
So, what to do? The sides have been drawn. People are either for McCain or for Obama. Republican vs. Democrat. It seems no other way. The election will be tightly drawn, tightly close, and the winner will be controversial but what election in this century hasn't? There could be a few options on how to resolve this: vote for neither. Become interested in the independent and vote for that one. However, independent vote is so largely ignored, the option's most likely a wash. But it is there for a reason. Or, really think about which side you're on. With the election looming, every decision will matter.
That's my take on a difficult situation. Please feel free to leave comments below.