Nonno
09-27-2008, 12:02 PM
Michael Seitzman: Barack Obama and the Return of Grace (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-seitzman/barack-obama-and-the-retu_b_129838.html)
We haven't seen a lot of grace from our government over the past eight years. We haven't had a lot of it in our society in general and we certainly haven't seen much grace in the various campaigns. We're all guilty of it. I'm guilty of it too. But what we saw in the first debate between Barack Obama and John McCain was nothing less than the rebirth of such grace. Unfortunately it was fully embodied by only one candidate, while at the same time we witnessed the sad and profound gracelessness in the decaying integrity of the other.
John McCain displayed himself for all to see as a deeply angry, petty man, locked in a blood-war somewhere deep in the rice paddies of his frustrated and confused mind. He personalizes every conflict to the point that he can't even look at his opponent, as if by ignoring him he might be able to deny the man his dignity. What McCain doesn't realize is that the only person who surrendered his dignity was the one who shamefully displayed contempt in a forum designed to promote civil discourse on the most important issues of the day. And those issues are far too important to all of us to be obfuscated by the kind of pettiness we hope to never see in our leaders. Those who aspire to lead us are supposed to be the best among us. They are supposed to transcend and rise above those they would hope to lead. McCain's is the kind of behavior that wouldn't even be acceptable in a high school debate, let alone one between candidates for the highest office in the land.
This guy nails it. We don't need a grumpy old man with a chip on his shoulder in the Whitehouse. We put him in and we'll have four more years of the same old crappy leadership we got with Bush.
We haven't seen a lot of grace from our government over the past eight years. We haven't had a lot of it in our society in general and we certainly haven't seen much grace in the various campaigns. We're all guilty of it. I'm guilty of it too. But what we saw in the first debate between Barack Obama and John McCain was nothing less than the rebirth of such grace. Unfortunately it was fully embodied by only one candidate, while at the same time we witnessed the sad and profound gracelessness in the decaying integrity of the other.
John McCain displayed himself for all to see as a deeply angry, petty man, locked in a blood-war somewhere deep in the rice paddies of his frustrated and confused mind. He personalizes every conflict to the point that he can't even look at his opponent, as if by ignoring him he might be able to deny the man his dignity. What McCain doesn't realize is that the only person who surrendered his dignity was the one who shamefully displayed contempt in a forum designed to promote civil discourse on the most important issues of the day. And those issues are far too important to all of us to be obfuscated by the kind of pettiness we hope to never see in our leaders. Those who aspire to lead us are supposed to be the best among us. They are supposed to transcend and rise above those they would hope to lead. McCain's is the kind of behavior that wouldn't even be acceptable in a high school debate, let alone one between candidates for the highest office in the land.
This guy nails it. We don't need a grumpy old man with a chip on his shoulder in the Whitehouse. We put him in and we'll have four more years of the same old crappy leadership we got with Bush.