The Bottom Line - Why Vote For McCain & Palin?

Bill Smith, ARRA Editor: Like most blogging pundits, I receive several hundred emails a day suggesting material and while all are appreciated, only a few can be shared with our readers. This morning while getting ready to write about last night's presidential debate, an email caught my attention. The below words written by a blogger in Hawaii. Sanity102 provides a pragmatic view of two critical issues affecting the American decision on who should be our next president. I am sharing her complete post because the majority of you in the heartland can relate with her words. After reading, please consider leaving a comment at Ms. Sanity's neighborhood (note: highlights were added by me). And finally, thank you Sanity:

It’s time for the bottom line. No matter what you hear from both sides of the political aisle, the fact is that there are only two issues that the majority of Americans care enough to bother voting over.

1. The Economy. At this point, it really doesn’t matter what caused the crisis or who’s to blame. If you’re Liberal, you hate the idea of “bailing out the fat cats of Wall Street.” If you’re Conservative, you hate the idea of the government getting involved with free enterprise and the people who took the risk not taking personal responsibility for their mistakes.

At this time, I doubt there is very much anyone could say to you that will change your mind, but let me ask you this: when the dust settles and the anger cools, who do you want to clean up the mess?

For weeks people have been asking what happens if McCain dies…in the case of the economy, the one stepping up is the only one of the four that actually has practical experience. Trying to compare the 3 senators to Palin’s stint as mayor and governor is like comparing people in the accounting department that juggle numbers and move columns so the sums balance to the manager that is responsible for producing the numbers.

McCain, unlike the other two, did not attend expensive private schools or live the privilege life of the wealthy. McCain knows first hand about hunger and fear and has faced both with steely determination to overcome. Yes his wife’s money has afforded him and their children a comfortable life; but like most people who have had to work for their success, McCain will be forever tempted by the urge to clip a coupon to save a buck or get 30% off an item. (In the case of a U.S. senator, that means saving the tax payer and trimming off pork from government spending.)

2. 9/11 and another attack on U.S. soil. Like millions of other Americans, before 9/11, I paid little attention to politics and the world outside of my own little universe. Islamic Terrorism was a rude awakening. Now I have written about that awful day, when I “grew up” and understood for the first time that people that didn’t even know me could, in the blink of an eye, when I was asleep, destroy all that I knew and all that I held dear.

I have also written about G.W. Bush and how grateful I was–and am for him. I suspect that I am not the only one. Not a month goes by that I don’t read or hear, almost defiantly, someone ”confess” that they like the president. I tell them bluntly that I feel the same and for very selfish reasons. Sure, as a woman, I appreciate his ending the female apartheid of Iran and Afghanistan–like tons of other Internet users, I used to get all those emails about those poor women with no rights, virtual sex slaves. And yes, if he never did another thing in his life, giving two nations the Bill of Rights (which would have had the media measuring a place for him at Mt. Rushmore if he had been a Democrat) assures my good opinion of him forever.

But the reason I like G.W. Bush, the very personal reason, is that he returned MY world to me. There was no food rationing like in other wars…the empty streets of my town returned to raking in tourist dollars and airline fares got cheap enough to visit relatives several times a year. My company made money and hired more people and my neighbors sold their house and moved up to the more expensive homes on the hill. Computers got cheaper, our football team went unbeaten, and the final book in that fantasy series got written.

We went back to nit picking and each side of the political aisle tried to tell the rest of America that everyone agreed with their point of view.

But you and I know that someday there will be another September morning when the world as we know it will come to a screeching halt. It will anger/scare/depress us more than what’s happening to our economy. It won’t matter if you are pro-life or pro-choice…pro-gay or pro-marriage…for gun control or gun rights…anti-illegal immigration or pro-African American. We will all glue ourselves to the t.v. sets and radios.

The question is therefore…who do you want standing on that mound at ground zero? The man who wants to talk to the enemy and negotiate or the man who will put fear into their minds–and hope into our hearts?

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Tags: 9-11, 2008 Election, John Mccain, presidential candidates, sanity, Sarah Palin, the economy, Why John McCain To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!