Grinnell's Adelman for Obama

Another conservative endorsement for Barack Obama. This time from Ken Adelman, who was President Reagan's Ambassador to the U.N. and then Director of the U. S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and accompanied Reagan on his superpower summits with Mikhail Gorbachev.

And, Adelman has an Iowa connection.... he was a philosophy major at Grinnell College before attending Georgetown University, where he received a Masters in Foreign Service Studies and Doctorate in Political Theory.

Last Friday in a Huffington Post op-ed, "Why a Staunch Conservative Like Me Endorsed Obama," Adelman explains why he decided for the first time in his life to vote for a Democratic presidential candidate.

This paragraph about sums it up, "McCain's temperament -- leading him to bizarre behavior during the week the economic crisis broke -- and his judgment -- leading him to Wasilla -- depressed me into thinking that "our guy" would be a(nother) lousy conservative president. Been there, done that."

Adelman rejects the Bush-McCain brand of conservatism... he labels himself as a "staunch conservative" but not a "neo con."

Adelman explains: "I was never liberal along the way (having campaigned for Barry Goldwater in 1964, when at that hotbed of lefty politics, Grinnell College). I'm really a con-con.

"And not a staunch Republican, as I've never been to a Republican rally or convention. So I've considered myself less of a partisan than an ideologue. I cared about conservative principles, and still do, instead of caring about the GOP....

"Granted, McCain's views are closer to mine than Obama's. But I've learned over this Bush era to value competence along with ideology. Otherwise, our ideology gets discredited, as it has so disastrously over the past eight years."

So... as we've seen time and time again these past few months, conservatives of character and conscience disavow the Bush-McCain failed faux-conservative ideology.

Adelman's final thought, "...I concluded that McCain would not -- could not -- be a good president. Obama just might be."

Debate: McVesuvius vs Ocalma

The Washington Post called last night's debate between candidates Barack Obama and John McCain, "A Hard-Hitting Final Round," where "McCain mocked Obama's 'eloquence,' offered sarcastic retorts to the Democrat's answers and repeatedly invoked a plumber named Joe to accuse his rival of waging 'class warfare' by wanting to raise taxes on the wealthy."

Obama's measured response was to "largely refuse to return fire even as McCain taunted him, defending himself against the Republican's accusations but repeatedly trying to turn the conversation back to the economy and the country's bleak financial situation."

McCain's debate performance was.... unsettling. For someone who likes to crow about how he has reached across the aisle to get things done, McCain seemed intolerant and disdainful of Obama's views, barely able to control his impatience and seething anger.

Regardless of what he tells you about his putting country first, he's still the self-centered controlling toddler McCain recounts in his autobiography, "Faith of My Fathers,".... "At the smallest provocation," he wrote, he would hold his breath until he passed out. As McCain describes his tantrums.... "I would go off in a mad frenzy, and then, suddenly, crash to the floor unconscious."

He took this habit of or-else temperament to the school yard, admitting, "My small stature motivated me to.... fight the first kid who provoked me."

Riding on his daddy and granddaddy's coattails, he was accepted, and tolerated, at the Naval Academy despite infamous "McNasty"-flaunting of the code of conduct. ("McNasty" was an actual McCain nickname at the Naval Academy.)

"When McCain was not shown the pampering to which he was accustomed, he grew petulant - even abusive. He repeatedly blew up in the face of his commanding officer..... Midway through his final year, McCain faced expulsion, about to 'bilge out' because of his excessive demerits" but his mother went straight to the top, and the academy's commandant stepped in to save him. (RS)

Insofar as his "top gun" image goes, McCain writes "I enjoyed the off-duty life of a navy flier more than I enjoyed the actual flying.... I drove a Corvette, dated a lot, spent all my free hours at bars and beach parties." McCain finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class.... 894 of 899.

McCain shamelessly used his famous military name to absolve him of his reckless behavior... including crashing planes and self-described "daredevil clowning".... once on a run at McCain field, when ground control put him in a holding pattern, lieutenant commander McCain demanded on his radio.... "Let me land, or I'll take my field and go home."

McCain admits to an "immature and unprofessional reaction to slights" that followed him to the Senate where he has "very few friends" according to GOP Sen. Bob Smith.

As examples of the many occasions McCain was unable to control his volcanic temper.... he called Iowa's Sen. Grassley a "f---ing jerk," and when being called out-of-line for barging into an immigration legislation meeting at the 11th hour to seize the reins and claim credit for the negotiations he exploded "F---- you! I know more about this than anyone in the room."

"Three of McCain's GOP colleagues have gone on record to say that they consider him temperamentally unsuited to be commander in chief" including "Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi who weighed in that 'the thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He is erratic. He is hotheaded.' " (RS)

There is no better indication of McCain's impulsive approach to governing than his barely-vetted, spit-in-the-country's-face selection of running mate Sarah Palin... "a born-again moose hunter whose only qualification for office is her ability to electrify Rove's base."

The country has suffered through eight years of a shoot-from-the-hip, gut-deciding, incurious president better suited to lead frat-party hijinks's.

McCain has discarded his promise to "treat my opponents with respect and demand that they treat me with respect." While Obama lived up to McCain's pledge last night, an eye-rolling, scoffing McCain didn't even try.

Most telling, perhaps, was McCain's self-centered final two-minute statement in the debate where he invoked his sense of entitlement to be president because of his family tradition of military service.

Well.... this time McCain is facing something he must earn. Being a spoiled, barely-in-control "McCain" isn't enough.

November 4!

The Importance of "Important"

As Roger Cohen points out in "Bush Does Europe Incognito" (NYTimes).... "An American president is in Europe and nobody cares. That's a moment."

And, the result of president Bush's "chip-on-the-shoulder" temperament..... "he has proved mean, vindictive, surly, controlling and impatient, as befits his guns-at-the-ready gait".... the arrogance of self-importance.

The Decider's farewell limp around Europe reflects the "damage a flawed temperament has done to trans-Atlantic ties. Europeans got tired of being scowled at."

Indeed. And it probably didn't help that the resistance of Germany and France to the invasion of Iraq resulted in then-Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld referring to them as "Old Europe."

Old and wise.

Cohen hopes for "some fresh thinking, but above all a fresh spirit, a fresh temperament."

He's obviously not referring to John McCain whose jaded rhetoric and hair-trigger temper promises more of the same.... after all when asked on the Today show yesterday if he knew when American troops could start to return home, McCain responded.... "No, but that's not too important. What's important is the casualties in Iraq." (Huffington)

That about sums up the Bush/McCain world view, bringing our troops home from a deadly occupation that is sucking the national treasury dry, gutting our military, and isolating us from the world community.... while not making us safer..... is "not too important."

Not too important?

Temperament vs. Temperamental

There you have it.... Hillary Clinton's latest bi-polar performance in last night's 20th Democratic presidential debate, the third one-on-one between her and Barack Obama. (Cartoon by Steve Brodner of The New Yorker)

Most of us have already heard the policy positions, the back and forth of their differences with only an occasional surprise. What the MSNBC-sponsored debate did highlight last night was the difference in temperament between the two candidates.

Hillary whined at the git go that she always got the first question and tried a lame one-liner "Maybe we should ask Barack if he's comfortable and needs another pillow." Her nasty humor fell flat and she never really found her debate face.

It was Temperamental Hillary who showed up last night.... flushed face, smoldering dagger-looks and false cackle. At any moment she could have burst into flames.

No matter how many ways.... her kitchen sink strategy.... she tries to remake herself or falsely frame Obama, nothing is working.

Hillary leads in opinion polls until she actually shows up in a state to campaign. Then as voters are subjected to I'm-a-woman-vote-for-me and "35 years of experience".... years most know are merely coattail rides.... she starts to fade like an over-exposed negative.

Maureed Dowd perfectly captures Hillary's dilemma in "Begrudging His Bedazzling" (WaPo) by pointing out, "The fact that Obama is exceptionally easy in his skin has made Hillary almost jump out of hers. She can't turn on her own charm and wit because she can't get beyond what she sees as the deep injustice of Obama not waiting his turn."

And, while not waiting his turn, Obama's temperament last night was pitch perfect.... calm, confident, commanding.... presidential.

Hillary's campaign has fallen down and can't get up.... or, as Obama points out, get away from the Iraq bus she drove into the ditch.