Reality check....

As the hate-based, negative ads and speeches continue to pour out of the McCain campaign, I find myself more and more turned off to the whole process.

There was a politico on the radio yesterday who pointed out that this is the whole point of the ugliness and divisiveness: turn off the voters, especially young voters, to the process.

And it is working to some extent. One of my guys, a young father who was a Kucinich guy and doesn't like McCain or Obama......now probably won't vote at all.

Personally, if I eliminate all policy questions from my decision-making and think just about character......I cannot understand the support for John McCain.

I want a calm, rational President.....someone with core principles, whatever they happen to be.

And a President concerned with elevating the national discourse.....not appealing to the worst aspects of our national character, just to get elected.

I fear the damage Sarah Palin and John McCain are doing is going to take a long time to repair.

Colin Powell is thinking along the same lines.....

This photo was the straw that broke the camel's back for Colin.....and brought the Republican former general in charge of the entire United States military to back Barack Obama.




Kareem Khan was a month from finishing his tour when he was killed. That is his mom in the photo.....not his girlfriend. The photo was from a series in The New Yorker.

On Sunday, General Powell said that Khan's sacrifice and service had swayed him to discuss the way that Muslims have been portrayed in the presidential campaign, and the contention that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is a Muslim.

Obama "is a Christian," Powell said. "He has always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, 'What if he is?' Is there something wrong with being Muslim in this country? The answer is no. That is not America." He added: "I am troubled that within the (Republican) Party we have these kinds of expressions" suggesting that Obama is a Muslim, and that if he is, he likely associates with terrorists.

Powell said that he felt strongly about the issue after he saw a photo of Khan's tombstone in the New Yorker magazine. In the black-and-white picture, Khan's mother is resting her head on her son's tombstone. On each side of the stone are flowers, and in between is a copy of the Quran. On the face of the tombstone is a crescent and star, indicating that the soldier buried there is a Muslim.

"He was an American," Powell said.

I wonder if Sarah Palin would consider him a Real American.....