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It's time to get serious about the next president

James Klurfeld

September 18, 2008

There's nothing like a crisis to focus the mind ... or our politics. At least it should be that way.

With some of this nation's most venerable financial institutions either going down the tubes or being taken over by the government, it's hard to believe that last week we were playing the gotcha game over the use of old cliché about putting lipstick on a pig.

In should be clear by now that our nation is in the midst of the most serious economic crisis since the Great Depression. Its impact is going to be felt particularly here in the metropolitan area, where a significant part of the local economy has been fueled by Wall Street profits and jobs.

But so much of what I hear coming from the campaigns of both Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama seems irrelevant to the real problems we now face. McCain accuses Obama of insulting his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, when he used the lipstick analogy to criticize McCain's economic plan. It was a distortion of what Obama said, not to mention just plain silly. Then Obama hits back with a television commercial in which McCain says he doesn't know how to use a computer. I know, the commercial is saying that McCain is out of touch. But, still, it's petty.

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And we in the news media feed into it all by paying undue attention to this palaver.

The underlying question of this campaign is who will be the most effective leader in a time of crisis. That's a question that involves analyzing the candidates' positions on issues, as well as gaining some insight into their character. But how to do that through the fog of charges and counter charges from the candidates, the blizzard of distorting if not downright lying commercials, and the seemingly endless prattle of talking heads on cable television and bloggers in cyberspace?

Part of the problem is the consultants who take over political campaigns. They are masters of deception and smear, trying to manipulate voter emotions. Candidates are told to stick to their simplistic messages and never, ever say anything controversial because it will be used against them.

Part of the problem is the news media, which values conflict and controversy over sober analysis of issues. Too much of political coverage these days is about the tactics of the campaign and not the substance of the problems the nation faces.

But part of the problem is also us voters. We're too easily manipulated by the campaign consultants and unwilling to hear anything that smacks of a need to sacrifice or take difficult steps.

Both McCain and Obama are better than the campaigns they've been running. McCain emerged as an attractive candidate in 2000 when he was riding his Straight Talk Express bus. But he lost the critical South Carolina primary to a George W. Bush, who hammered him with distortions. Eight years later, he's listening to some of Bush's consultants.

Throughout the primary, Obama seemed so fresh and different. Some of that has worn off, as he listened to the consultants and rejected a series of town hall debates with McCain and opted out of public funding for the presidential campaign.

The mainstream media, in an effort for balance, is sometimes too quick to follow a negative about one candidate with a negative about the other, and I don't want to fall into the trap of equivalency here: To Obama's credit, he has at least said that solving our problems won't be easy and that it will take sacrifice. And McCain's campaign has more distortions and outright lies than Obama's.

This much seems to be alarmingly true: Whoever occupies the White House come Jan. 20 will inherit unusually serious problems - from a deeply troubled economy to the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Not to mention the war in Iraq. Or the ticking time bomb of entitlement programs for the Baby Boom generation.

There are three presidential debates scheduled between now and Election Day, the first a week from tomorrow. Maybe we'll get some serious talk then. It's time.