By contrast the RNC was lucky if it attracted 20,000 people (while perhaps as many as 8,000 truly hard core demonstrators showed up), and it did lack the careful choreography of the DNC’s convention, but what the DNC lacked in substance and grassroots appeal the RNC convention more than made up for in simple American values. Still it was like being invited to supper at a billionaire’s palatial mansion one week and to your parents modest but comfortable home the next. I certainly felt much more comfortable with the much more modest but comfortable home of the RNC convention.  McCain is certainly no great orator but it is the substance of his words coupled with the undeniable character of his past that I believe more than makes up for his oratory failings.

   On the other hand Obama doesn’t come across nearly so eloquently when he isn’t reading from a prepared script and this is where McCain excels as evidenced by his speaking at the Saddle Back Church a few weeks ago, as well as his many hundreds of “town hall” meetings where he welcomes any and all questions and has to speak from his knowledge and his heart. Obama appears to be sadly lacking in both. I remember a recent interview where Obama couldn’t seem to complete a sentence with out at least half a dozen “hum’s” and “unh’s.” And who could forget his answer at Saddle Back about his personal belief of when a fetus is considered human? Obama’s incredible answer certainly didn’t express either his knowledge or the feeling of his heart when he stated that was “above my pay grade.” To Obama’s credit he himself obviously knows the truth, hence his decision not to have an unscripted debate with McCain.

   At least I can look forward to a potentially unscripted Vice Presidential debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin. Like McCain you can be certain that Palin will speak from her heart and I believe she will also speak with knowledge. Hopefully her parties advisers will have prepared her for Biden’s favorite style of attack which has generally been very successful in making his opponents appear even dumber than he is. He has used this tactic for better than twenty years but forewarned is truly forearmed and I believe Palin will be a much tougher nut to crack than he has been used to devouring in the past.

   Ultimately this presidential race will be decided by the voters of our great nation and I refuse to believe that there are truly enough anti-American, anti-good people in this fair country to buy the pure manure that Obama and the MSM have been spreading. It is disturbing enough that because of the MSM’s concerted propaganda machines often repeated mantra of how our current president “mislead” the American people into a totally unilateral decision on his part to “settle an old score” that he “fabricated” the facts that led to the invasion of Iraq and the removal of Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti, the former ruthless dictator of Iraq. This lie, despite the nearly unanimous support of all members of our Congress both Democrat and Republican, along with more than 40 other nations around the world. Joe Biden was even so emboldened that he claimed, as reported by NewsMax.com today, that if elected he and Obama would seek to bring criminal charges against President Bush!

   I certainly don’t agree with a great deal of our current president’s decisions but I shudder to think what his predecessor would have done had 9/11 occurred during his watch.  I believe after the current intensely emotional and completely irrational furor of today has abated and settled into the more rational perspective of a rational evaluation of a historic period in our nations history, it will be determined that President Bush actually accomplished a great deal, despite the opposition. Yes he has certainly had his share of wrong headed policies but no one is perfect.

   I don’t consider myself a Republican or a Democrat but first, last, and always a proud American and I will throw my full support behind the candidate that I believe has the best interests of America first, last, and always. My wife’s uncle is a very nice gentleman who couldn’t hurt a fly except by accident, but he has been a life long Democrat and so he will only vote for a Democrat. During a recent conversation he admitted that he didn’t know much about Obama as he hadn’t really been following the candidates bid for the highest office in our nation. It shows the sort of lazy politics of many Americans, Democrat and Republican alike who don’t fully understand the importance of working to maintain our strong national identity.

   I have to admit that as a young man I wasn’t any different so I don’t mean any disrespect to him or the many other American’s like him. They tend to be good and decent people. They are also very lazy to believe that any democratic society can simply be placed on auto pilot without the potential of a serious disaster if left unattended to long.  I just wish more Americans would have learned from the tragic events such as the Oklahoma City bombing and the even larger tragedy of 9/11, and realized what our founding fathers knew only to well. That evil can only exist where good men do nothing. I believe that is a quote from Burke but I wouldn’t swear to it.

   No one can really argue the tremendous courage that a young McCain faced during more than five years of brutal treatment at the hands of the North Vietnamese government but I certainly don’t fully support all of his views either. However when faced with the only other choice left I will tighten my belt and do everything I possibly can to support he and Governor Palin in their pursuit of our highest elected office because as former Mayor Rudy Giuliani said during the RNC convention, “There is good change and there is bad change.” That pretty much sums up this race in a nutshell.