According to a Real Clear Politics poll, less than 20 percent of the US population approves of the way Congress is doing its job and 75 percent flat-out DISAPPROVE. JOHN MCCAIN HAS GAINED EVERY YEAR OF PREPARATION FOR PRESIDENT over the last three centuries of his life IN THIS VERY CONGRESS...doing a job that 75 percent of Americans disapprove of.
Let's consider this paradox with an analogy: Imagine you are applying for a job as a police officer and you have spent the last 25 years robbing banks. Your resume includes time in jail, probation, fines, group therapy and various prison romances. Let's say your rival for the job has no experience robbing banks. Instead, he has spent his life organizing with his church and contributing to the well being of the community.
Well, if your future employer is the American people, apparently, you are "more prepared" for the job--if only because you have more experience with the justice system. Can we all breathe deeply and give thanks to God that the American people don't make employment decisions for our neighborhood police department? Thank you.
Not only has McCain served as a senior Senator during an epoch of the most appalling corruption since Warren Harding's administration, but for almost all of the last 28 years his party has controlled Congress. From President Ronald Reagan to George H.W. Bush, the Republicans controlled the White House for 12 years. Bill Clinton took over the White House in 1992 but only led a Democratic Congress for two years before Newt Genghrich and Tom DeLay, et. al. engineered the Republican Contract-with-America-takeover in 1994. Since 2000, we've suffered beneath the mother of all Republican administrations.
John McCain has "prepared" for his opportunity to become president by voting 95% percent of the time with President Bush in the last, unpopular, year alone. If this is "preparation" then Michael Phelps be damned. If this is "preparation," Shawn Johnson's smile only masks a deeper guilt and shame because I always thought that preparation was the blood, sweat and tears that we shed in the privacy of our own minute and daily accomplishments and failures. I always thought preparation was a badge of honor and courage, not a synonym for spinelessness and moral failure.
John Adams wrote that, "Upon common theaters, indeed, the applause of the audience is of more importance to the actors than their own approbation. But upon the stage of life, while conscience claps, let the world hiss! On the contrary if conscience disapproves, the loudest applauses of the world are of little value."
