SE Cupp offers insight into the differences illustrated by the candidates in last nights debates. The highlights:
“It sounds innocuous and even prosaic, but personal responsibility is
something politicians — especially politicians running for office —
rarely, if ever, invoke. For them to do it on a national stage, in
response to a national crisis, while running for president and vice
president of the United States, is no small thing, and an incredibly
telling window into John McCain and Sarah Palin’s worldview. It’s one
that should highlight just how unique these candidates are.”
and:
“John McCain may not have won the night. But he touched on a fundamental
virtue of conservatism, one that is often reserved only for
intellectual debates, not presidential ones. Americans need to stop
looking to government to solve their problems and remember the values
we have always said we prize — individual responsibility,
accountability, self-sufficiency.”
I don’t particularly like either candidate. In fact, the opening of last night’s debate infuriated me. In the same breath, McCain stated that Americans are fed-up with government meddling (after voting for the $700 Billion bailout) and then suggested a plan for buying mortgages while blaming Wall Street for the current mess that is largely caused by the government meddling in the first place.
At my core, however, I believe in the ability and the response-ability of people. Little children do not learn how to walk by using crutches. They learn by repeated cycles of success and failure until they experience the personal victory of running.
All I ask is that we all have the chance to live with the freedom to experience this cycle.
