McCain 08

I was wrong. I really thought Obama was going to be the next president. Watching the Saddleback Forum last Friday I knew it was, if not over, at least going to be very difficult for Obama to win. The reason basically, is that Americans are a simplistic people. Certainly not simple, but a people for whom thinking is not really a priority and in some contexts something to be quite proud of avoiding. Watching the forum last week, as McCain rattled off (actually quite impressive) little sound-bites to fierce applause, and then Obama ground out complex, convoluted, responses (to what really were complex convoluted questions), you could almost hear the grinding of gears in the heads of the participants, accompanied (was off-screen but I'm sure of it) by expressions of mild discomfort (you know like, when you've got constipation), oh yeah, and a few spatterings of applause. That was when I realized it's over. It's not that Americans are bad at thinking, it's just that they *really* don't like doing it. This isn't always a bad thing - one of the reasons America does so well is that, come a point, further analysis is a matter of diminishing returns, and by the time a, say, European has finished mulling things over, an American is half-way finished building something, but it does make them extraordinarily bad at choosing leaders. They vote out the boringly competent George HW Bush (commander in chief of the most flawless victories in modern military history) and yet vote back in his blustering buffoon of a son, who has to exhibit a modicum of ability at any aspect of his job (actually I'll give him the Surge - no idea how it worked, but seemingly it has). 'W' was simply easier to understand. Now, it looks like McCain is going to be voted in for the same reason. Don't get me wrong, I think he's a strong candidate, and it's an interesting fantasy imagining he'd been elected in 2000, and while his age is a real concern, I think he'll make a good president (possibly better than Obama). It's just the *reason* for his probable election that's so depressing.