Jemele Hill is probably my favorite columnist at ESPN.com, where we both write for Page 2. She’s smart, funny and makes intelligent points without slamming it down the reader’s throat. I have nothing but respect for her.
That said, I strongly disagree with her recent blog post, in which she implies—based on the unknown factor of Barack Obama—
that we might be better off with John McCain as president.
To begin with, there is far, far, far, FAR greater unknown with McCain than Obama. Factually, Obama is a moderate liberal. Factually, he has stated positions on Iraq; on the Supreme Court; on abortion rights; on illegal immigration. Do I agree with them all? No. Am I frustrated by some of his recent Weeble-Wobble statements? Yes. But overall, he’s been pretty darn firm. McCain, on the other hand, is pure Jell-O. He makes appearances with Bush, but only when there’s no press, and the only people present are hard-core, big-money Republican donors. He says we should stay the course in Iraq, but hasn’t even remotely explained what the course is. He paints himself as a moderate, but is strictly an anti-choice, anti-gay, pro-gun candidate. He babbles on about his efforts to curtail governmental spending, yet woos lobbyists in creative ways that allow him to say, “Who? Me?”
Worst of all, in my opinion, is McCain’s nonstop, annoying-as-all-hell babbling about how amazing it was for him to “stand up and say Rumsfeld should no longer be calling the shots about Iraq.” First off, myriad Democrats were saying the same exact thing for at least a year before McCain had the guts to speak up. Second, where was McCain when it mattered, back when he was supporting the whole Iraq war effort? If being a veteran has served him sooooo incredibly well, judgment-wise, why didn’t he have the smarts to step up and say, “This is misguided” back in 2002? Say what you want about Obama (He had nothing to lose; he was being political; etc) but back when very few people had the balls to say, “This war is a bad idea,” he said—literally—
this war is a bad idea.
One last thing: McCain recently admitted he does not know how to use a computer.
Think about that for a minute. Really—
think about it.
In the year 2008, we would be electing a man who does not know how to use a computer. That’s not a joke, and not particularly funny. It’s friggin’ frightening.
So, Jemele, you’re one of my faves. But you’re waaaaaaaaaay off on this one.
