Fri's Political rant

I think I suggested the other day that I might have something to say about political matters. Well, there is something.

I've heard both of the major candidates acceptance speeches now and I am massively underwhelmed.

Obama is a great speaker. No question about it he can work a crowd and take them off with him to never never land or anywhere else while he is pouring out the eloquence. OTOH governments run on stuff other than oratory.

He has a sparse record in the Senate and little other governing experience or even management experience. (I suppose managing a campaign or 2 counts but there are a lot more competing interests in a country. ) I think O has a grasp of the problems in education, health care and economy. But to suggest that somehow electing him means that we will all be better Fathers is a stretch.

With one breath he is promising to reduce taxes on 95% of working families and with the next he calling for Federal increases of school teachers salaries and building more schools.

He thinks he can fight the special interests? I'm not sure he knows the names and faces of the special interests.

I'm not sure that the decline in school standards has an awful lot to do with teachers salaries or even class size and equipment. Yes you need a minimum of all of it to even get going but when I was in school my teachers were badly paid, barely trained and teaching 35 - 40 per class. Yes it was the height of the baby boom in a Parochial school. I got an excellent education. Went to a competitive High School and was accepted to College a year early based on SAT scores. No one was doing remedial reading and writing classes in colleges. They were not needed. If you were accepted to college you could do the work.

In the 60's parents and teachers worked together to maintain focus and discipline in classrooms. Most kids had a place to go to after school where doing your homework was a priority and there was space & quiet to do it in. For me & my friends it was home but there were other arrangements. Teacher's were allowed to discipline kids although in my personal experience no one ever got slapped or otherwise physically disciplined in my school. Glares were enough.

The curriculum had the usual 3R's and not much else. Music & Arts yes weekly but we did not have lengthy sessions of DARE programs or other socialization programs.Anyway, these are educational issues that are not directly manipulable by Federal legislation. If the Federal government tried to micromanage schools to this extent then we have a major problem on our hands. The local School Board is a governing entity that is VERY dear to most Americans heart (even though they rarely want to sit on it)

McCain is only an average speaker. He did well and covered all the bases. He has the experience in government but just how much he would really do differently is a BIG question. His being part of the business as it has been is worrying. CAN he actually govern differently? (Can anyone)

The VP's are cute but they do not have much of any real power.

At least Palin has actual related experience. She has dealt with budgets and I bet it's pretty hard to tell the local fire dept that they can't have everything they want because the school needs a new roof this year or the hospital is in danger of loosing accreditation if they don't upgrade something. (I'm just making things up here. I have no knowledge of the actual stuff that went on when Palin was Mayor. But these are the kinds of considerations that really do happen)

Biden is good looking to in his own sort of way but another careerSenator? really how much extra input can that give?

I've worn my fingers out for now. Maybe if there are some comments I might have more to say. Give it time & I'm sure I'll have more to say.

I'm completely undecided on the better choice in November. Part of my problem is that we have so little real data to work with. Both candidates are careful to craft their speeches to tell us what we want to hear. It has little to do with what they are likely to really do. We've all played the "yes them to death and do what you like" game and that is what I see both of these guys doing now. It dosen't make for intellugent decision making.