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Fitness
101 To some extent, John McCain has received the most attention because of (a) his age and (b) his temper. Yet, factors such as a candidate's honesty and greed are also legitimate measures of one's fitness to represent America's diverse interests, demographics and needs. How apt is a candidate to reign fairly and compassionately? The ideal candidate, which we cannot realistically expect to find, would rule with the wisdom of Solomon and the spirituality of the Carpenter of Nazareth. How open is a candidate to the realistic, practical needs of compromise in our political process? Are they subject to blackmail or extortion because of personal weaknesses or legitimate mental illness issues? Can we that easily forget Richard Nixon's paranoia, for example, or how close he came to launching a nuclear attack in the dark depths of the Watergate scandal? Did not John Kennedy's insatiable sexual appetite subject him to blackmail from J. Edgar Hoover and even from organized crime itself? Have we learned anything at all from Bill Clinton's inability to keep his pants zipped? Is John McCain's temper in part the result of what he may (or may not) have been subjected to as a North Vietnamese prisoner of war - or does it go back much farther in his past? Is he more liable than Clinton or Obama to get us into a deeper Middle East war - or perhaps more wars? The belief of George W. Bush that he was the president who would see Armageddon (and the urging of some of his closest advisors that it was his responsibility to launch the First Strike of Armageddon) is an issue that frightened a great many people, including some close to him. Fitness also depends on one's sense of ethics or morality. If a man cheats on his wife, will he not cheat on us? If a candidate lies on the campaign trail about his/her opponent, will they not also lie to the nation once elected? If a candidate steals from the voters as a state legislator or U.S. Senator or First Lady, will they not steal from us even when they are President? These are all legitimate questions to ask of any candidate. If we truly want "change we can believe in", we must ask - and answer these questions or there will be no change - only the illusion of change, while the reality is "business as usual." Our nation is at a point in its history that we cannot survive if we continue "business as usual." We are at a point of critical mass - ecologically, economically, socially, spiritually, militarily, in terms of health, crime, population, race, religion, etc. - that we face an explosion of our republic/democracy that will engulf all of us, not just here, but across the planet. We must change - or perish. Hillary Clinton
Barack Obama
John McCain
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