Kopfzeiler endorsed John McCain and Barack Obama in January. As presidential candidates, they have disappointed until now. This especially true for the former maverick John McCain.
Back in January, before the first primaries kicked in, I endorsed John McCain and Barack Obama to be the next presidential candidates for their respective parties on this blog. America listened to me, but thus far, the candidates have disappointed.
Mr. Obama had to fight a long and tough primary season with Hillary Clinton. He embarked on a tour around the world afterwards, giving an idea of what his foreign policy might look like. In other fields, he has failed to do so: His plans to cut taxes for the middle-class sound reasonable, but even stopping the Bush administration’s tax cuts will not be enough to present an alternative policy for a country whose deficit has been largely overstretched by wars and bail-outs. At the same time, he has just recently discovered the importance of education as a topic. His vote for a federal surveillance program in July has spread doubts about whether he really will be able to bring change in delicate issues as data protection. Mr. Obama will have to get to the issues in the remaining 55 days to prove he is not only a rhetoric phenomenom, but that can be expected to envision solutions for America’s current and future problems.
If Mr. Obama has mildly disappointed, John McCain has majorly done so: He used his early primary-victory for nothing but to appeal to the Republican base – gone is the maverick, welcome John McSurrender-to-the-Establishment. He has embraced the religious right, promised to prolong the Bush-administration’s tax cuts he had opposed for years, advocated offshore oil-drilling in Alaska and, like Mr. Obama, not spoken much about immigration.
The growing influence of former Bush aide Steve Schmidt and his switch to Karl-Rove-like tactics look like the certain road to smear tactics similar to the one that cost him the Republican nomination in 2000. His VP-choice of Sarah Palin has raised serious doubts about his judgment beyond conservative populism, the prospect of a moose-hunting creationist with a lack of experience following the 72-year-old veteran in case of an illness seems just made for visions of doom, visions worse than those the Bush-administration has brought over the country in the last eight years.
Both candidates have less than two months to win Kopfzeiler’s presidential endorsement – and from the primary results they know where they would be without this blog. There is still hope both finally show why their presidency would be an opportunity and a blessing for the United States and the world. But they should start to proove themselves worthy, finally.