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Nation's moral failing

Provocative question from weekend's forum shows candidates' similarity

August 19, 2008

When presidential candidates agree, it seldom makes news. Sometimes it should. Appearing back-to-back Saturday in an unusual forum at Saddleback Church in California, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain were each asked to identify his - and the country's - greatest moral failure. Obama mentioned his teenage drug use, McCain his failed first marriage. It was when they turned to the nation's moral failure that the two, unbeknownst to each another, sang from the same hymnal.

"Selfishness," Obama said. "We still don't abide by that basic precept of Matthew: that whatever you do for the least of my brothers, you do for me. That principle applies to poverty, racism, sexism and providing ladders of opportunity for people to get into the middle class."

McCain said so, too. We have often "not devoted ourselves to causes greater than ourselves." After 9/11 "we should have told Americans to join the Peace Corps, expand the military, serve a cause greater than your self-interest." [CORRECTION: In an editorial on the Saddleback Forum last Tuesday, we misquoted an answer by John McCain. He said that after 9/11, "We should have told Americans to join the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, the military, expand our volunteers, expand what you're doing." He did not mention expanding the military, as we incorrectly reported. (A32 ALL 08/25/08)]

The Rev. Rick Warren's question gave the public a glimpse of the candidates' take on the nation unlike anything asked in countless primary election debates or trumpeted in political ads. Small-bore self-interest is impeding progress on big issues, from repairing the nation's standing in the world to achieving tax fairness and providing health care for all.

The Saddleback audience was evangelical, and the candidates' answers, no doubt, were crafted with that in mind. But now that they've fingered selfishness as a national failing, they should continue the thought. How would each of them lead us to be better? That would be a newsworthy conversation.