October Demands Patience

I’ve laid off a bit during the last few days about commenting on the news in general. One reason for this is that I really don’t understand some of it. In particular, the (at this writing) 700 billion dollar taxpayer-funded bailout planned for the cascading failures on Wall Street. It seems that everyone is in agreement as to who’s to blame in this crisis: the other guy. And in this intense stage of a presidential campaign, I doubt that I am going to get an even-handed explanation from anyone, either.

That brings me to the other reason for being reticent about news commentary. It seems that EVERYTHING that is happening has a special political spin attached to it, depending on which side one wants to win in November. And for better or for worse, the rest of the world seems to understand this to some extent as well. Well, at least I hope they do. After all, the two candidates and their running mates both seem to be engaged in a game of one-upmanship as to how much they can vilify different important countries such as Russia and Iran. The idea of proposing that we engage in constructive, peaceful dialogues with our adversaries (real or imagined) apparently would be an act of political suicide. Can you believe what EITHER of them are saying at this late stage? I can’t. Why should anyone else? I suppose we'll all just have to wait for this period of national insanity to pass in about five weeks. This coming month of October is going to be a test, not only of my patience with this broken (to me) electoral process, but also of the entire world’s patience as well. Maybe I’ll just stick to local, sports, and weather commentary for a month!

I know I had mentioned in an earlier article that I was stepping down from campaign commentary until after the election. But there is one observation I feel compelled to make at this time: John McCain doesn’t look or sound very well. He has been on the campaign circuit since 2007 and must be physically spent. He is in his seventies, which by itself doesn’t necessarily mean anything. But it looks to me as if he has overextended himself badly. I hope I’m wrong, for his sake if he loses, and for the country’s sake as well if he wins. For I won’t be surprised if, not too long after the election, we don’t get a news flash about him being admitted to a hospital somewhere. What kind of system is this that you have to practically kill yourself to get elected?