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Civility in critiquing the ideas of others is no vice. Rudeness in defending your own ideas is no virtue.


Thu 30 Oct 2008, 12:10 AM
Leave aside the question of who would be a better President, who would be a stronger leader, who would have policies that would help or hurt or whatever...

Imagine various candidates over the years magically handed a half-hour opportunity, six days before an election, to share their vision, uninterrupted and with full production values, to the entire country.

Imagine Ronald Reagan painting an optimistic picture of America as in the Shining City Upon A Hill.  Imagine Bill Clinton describing the hopes and fears of ordinary Americans as in I Still Believe In A Place Called Hope.  Imagine Abraham Lincoln giving voice to our underlying spirit as in his Gettysburg address.  Imagine Franklin D. Roosevelt bolstering a scared and beleaguered American public with the Only thing we have to fear is fear itself.  Imagine Harry Truman rousing the populace as in his whistle-stop Give them hell speech.

Now imagine if John McCain had been handed this opportunity yesterday, no strings attached, with the production team, the money to produce it, all his current advisors available to help him create it.  Imagine John McCain given free reign to paint any picture he wanted, create the ultimate "game changer", put his vision in front of the American people.  Again, leave aside the question of who would be a better President, etc.  No matter what your political beliefs, just imagine that half hour.  Then go look at the polls and see if they make sense to you.

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