Last night I watched the “interviews” Pastor Rick Warren conducted with Barack Obama and John McCain. Fortunately, they were over before Michael Phelps swam for his 8th gold medal. It was also fortunate for me that because I wanted to see Phelps swim, I didn’t stick around to listen to the “experts” tell me what I just heard.
First, let’s set the record straight. I don’t care for either Obama or McCain. I don’t think either candidate is right for this country right now, I don’t trust either candidate and to put it bluntly, I don’t think either candidate convinces me they share my political views.
Having said that, the one thing that clearly jumped out of the TV screen during last night’s program was that having both men on stage, even though not “debating” at the same time, it was easy to see what I have been hearing a lot of lately – Obama is a greenhorn, has very little knowledge of the issues and is unsure of himself. That’s how he came across.
McCain on the other hand, came across as very comfortable, sure of himself, direct in his responses (for the most part) and because of that actually made me begin to think I might vote for him. The difficulty I still have is that I don’t trust him. He said many of the right things any conservative would want to hear but is he firm enough in his beliefs that he won’t sell his ideals short in order to be the “maverick” and eagerly jump across the aisle?
I won’t get into specifics of the questions and answers offered but I will say this. Both candidates were asked by Mr. Warren which Supreme Court justice they would NOT have nominated. Although neither candidate spent a great deal of time explaining their answers, the mistake Obama made was when he singled out Justice Clarence Thomas and the reason he gave for not wanting to nominate him. Obama said Thomas was inexperienced.
That may come back and haunt him because much of John McCain’s campaign has focused on the fact that he has years and years of experience and Obama has none. Using his own thoughts maybe he shouldn’t be nominated at the end of the month at the Democrat convention.
If how each candidate presented themselves last night is any indication as to how the debates will go after the conventions, Obama had better do some serious planning to avoid being embarrassed.
Tom Remington
