I’m like most Americans. I’ve watched both debates thus far, I’m fed up with business as usual, and I still don’t know for whom I will vote come November 4th. And as I ponder this, one other question keeps turning around in my mind.

Are these two tickets upside down?

Whether or not you agree with their politics or their policies…whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat…do you also have the feeling that Joe Biden and Sarah Palin are at least two people who say what they mean and mean what they say? Doesn’t Biden seem knowledgeable and doesn’t Palin seem real? And aren’t they each in stark contrast to their up-lines? I mean, does Obama seem knowledgeable and does McCain seem real? Or is it just me who feels that while I’d never wish harm or illness on anyone… in the event of the unthinkable…where would be the downside of either Biden or Palin rising to the office of the Presidency?

Sure, as I’ve said earlier, you may not agree with their politics or policies. But in an era of disgust with managed and staged candidates who are (in the instant Presidential case) either inexperienced or past their prime, how refreshing to listen to two bright, gutsy, V.P. candidates who aren’t afraid to wear both their intelligence and their passion on their faces and their sleeves.

As I write this entry, all of the post-debate commentators
are busy scurrying to say which one of them scored the points they
needed to score and which of them came out on top. What I don’t hear
any of them saying is that these two were more intelligent, more
interesting and more provocative in their forthrightness than either
McCain or Obama have yet to be. Or may ever be, for that matter.

Now, what are we voters to do? No matter how much we may be moved by Biden’s and Palin’s respective effort and sincerity, Joe Biden and Sarah Palin are in supporting roles. We do not get the option to make them our first choice. And it’s probably reckless citizenship to vote into the Office of President of the United States an individual based upon who’s in the second slot. 

I think it’s our individual responsibilities to, for once if never before, actually read as much as possible about what John McCain and Barack Obama stood for and who they were up until the time they ran for the Presidency in 2008. Both the limelight and political expediency have a tendency to cause candidates to temporarily deviate from who and what they have always been and stood for. I think this is particularly so for McCain and Obama.

While I would prefer a viable third choice there is none at the moment. As is so often in Life, and as the song says, “You say you get what you want. I say you get what you need.”  So, let’s take a positive approach and assume that either Barack Obama or John McCain is who we need to lead us at this time. But let us approach the question of “which one?” with intelligence and passion. Something we saw tonight in Joe Biden and Sarah Palin. Now that’s what I’d call leadership.

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