Now We're Talking

The nation now is in a position to evaluate the young candidate, Barack Obama, from an objective standpoint. Forget the inexperience argument. Forget the racism. Set aside all the nasty innuendos about his so-called Muslim background and the lunacy of his church pastor. But there is a legitimate concern about the man himself which can, and should be, evaluated before, by our votes, we should entrust him with the legacy of our country. There is a country song that carries the message (I tend to forget the exact words) "You''ve got to stand for something or you'll stand for nothing at all. From various descriptions, he has taken an ambitious path to his presidential nomination. He has spent time in a number of activities; law school teaching, community organizer, state legislator, and national senator. What shines through his various activities is his ability to think and express himself very intelligently. From an old geezer's perspective, what is lacking in his resume is the sense of commitment in a project or undertaking or job that forms the basis for the strength of character we would all like to see in a presidential candidate. One of the patterns of employment that has emerged over the last twenty years or so is job hopping by younger persons (i.e. younger than me). Well qualified, highly educated men and women today appear to have no qualms about moving from one job to the next. It is difficult to me to understand how such people can ever be fully engaged in what they are doing if they have one eye on their work while the other eye wanders around looking for a higher paying or more prestigious position. What emerges from this pattern is the sense of an "it's all about me" approach, which translates for me that such a person is never fully committed to the task at hand. I have hired a lot of people as the owner of my small law firm over a period of 25 years. A consistent 'red flag' to me in job interviews of prospective employees was this job-hopping pattern. Would I consider hiring a person who, while well qualified, appeared ready to take the next job that came along rather than commit themselves fully to the variety of tasks that my job offer presented? That is, would the tough get going on to some other position when the going got tough? Sorry about the tired cliche, but it says most effectively what I am trying to say.

These are my concerns about Obama. These concerns are not grounded in racism and I truly like the guy and admire what he has done so far in capturing the imagination of so many Americans. From the issues standpoint, he wins hands down because of the multiplicity of failures foisted on us by the current Republican adminstration. McCain, in my judgment, has made a terrible mistake in judgment by latching on to so many of these issues and telling us that we would have a Bush III term.