LAST CHANCE TEXACO
As Rickie Lee Jones sang in her venerable heroin-dirge, "Last Chance Texaco", it's "your last chance to check under the hood...", and these lyrics may be swirling in the collective head of the McCain campaign at this very moment. Without a single doubt, this Wednesday's debate, the final one, between John McCain and Barrack Obama, is McCain's last chance to initiate what would have to be a hysterically stunning comeback.
It has been hard to watch. Not knowing what goes on behind the scenes makes it harder. There is no shortage of conjecture, but from the outside it looks as though there just simply never was a cohesive message that was the foundation of the campaign. It has fluctuated throughout, and when events, like the worldwide economic meltdown came along, the response seemed flustered and unconvincing.
What a crossroads America find itself at today. It is hard to imagine there being anymore on the table at one time. The country at war, divided beyond belief, a financial crisis of historic proportions, a knock-down drag-out presidential campaign in it's final days. Wow. And these are not the usual kind of made-up political issues, they are very real with very real, and possibly dire, outcomes for average Americans. The sense of uncertainty I hear, talking to people in the course of a day, is alarming in itself. Our generation, and that of our children, may be on the cusp of our most challenging and trying time. The days ahead do surely seem ominous.
This is why I have supported John McCain. Experience counts. Elections have consequences. He reminded us of that back in 2000. I think all of us would agree that is a simple fact. The consequences of this upcoming election are phenomenal. The progressive outlook of the Obama campaign and the hordes of people swept up in it, coupled with an overwhelmingly democratic house, will speed the country along a path to a new culture that will be unrecognizable in just a decade or two. While it has been heartening to see the number of people attracted to the conservative values...unabashed conservative values, of Sarah Palin, it is not enough people to get them to the White House
McCain needs the split-ticket voters. More than ever, right now, he needs to address the anger the public is feeling over this bail-out plan. Overwhelmingly, people want accountability, legal and otherwise. They want to see prison terms, and they should. If there is any "maverick" left in McCain, he will come out swinging at this final debate. Not crazy. Just the passion that so many of us fell in love with that was the hallmark of the "other" John McCain.
Karl From New Hampshire