How a Soul Gets Lost

I was going to write an entry on how much I love Keith Olbermann; I am very much impressed by how he can be so blunt and call politicians on misconducts and lies, it is a breath of fresh air. In fact, I am still deeply impressed by Mr. Olbermann, if I ever decide to watch real news, he'd be my premier news source. (Somebody give this guy a job in one of the main channels.)

But I decided to change the entry because at the middle of another sleepless night playing Tetris, my tired and confused brain has lead me in a different direction on the issue and I decided to entertain it for a while: What if McCain understands that his campaign is doing more harm than good to his beloved country?

There's no doubt in my mind that McCain is much more intelligent than Bush and I'm pretty sure he loves his country. It is just very unfortunate for him to run for the Republican party after 8 years of Bush, for there is no legitimate way that a Republican could win this year. The only route that can possibly gain him some edge is to do negative campaigning creating rumors, lies and utilizing voters misconceptions and insecurities.

Imagine knowing you can potentially do some good in a position of power and after years and years of work, it's finally your turn to run but then there's no way you can win so you're running for show. Imagine hiring a person you've never met before just because your party and your advisers thought it would tap a new demographic that has been ignored but come to find out the selection cannot be worse. Imagine you have to inject racism and utilize people's fear to mislead the uneducated in giving you their votes. Will you at some point feel the utter frustration and the tremendous guilt a normal person should feel?



Given, being a seasoned politician like McCain, one should always carry a brave face and sticking to your guns like you're straight-talking no matter what, but one might wince every now and then especially when you come face to face to the ignorant mob you have created with your scare tactics. And if the ones that yelled the "Terrorist!" and the "Kill Him!" were not hired actors and one day turn into sniper assassins ala Kennedy/MLK, can McCain live with his conscience knowing that his campaign has created such a wedge between members of different races and religions that leads to physical violence and set the country back 50 years?

How should an intelligent person feel knowing that he's exploiting people's ignorance for votes? Even if that means losing respect from others devoted supporter who are now disgusted by his act? Who votes for a person that associates himself with racists?



How should a person feels knowing his supporters are either bigots and idiots? Or is their number so big that the majority of U.S. are made up of these people and he'll win if he can rattle all their chains?