but i don’t want to choose!
by Ari Holtz
Published: August 27, 2008
I want it all. I don’t want to choose. I don’t understand why I have to make one choice at the cost of losing the other. I don’t want sacrifice, to weigh positive and negatives, balance pros and cons, and move forward pragmatically. I want all the positives and none of the negatives, all of the pros and none of the cons, all of the benefits without giving anything up.
Perhaps these are the words of a spoiled child with an indulgent parent. Or perhaps, worse, they are the words of an immature, spoiled adult. Maybe the words are unrealistic, fantastical, absurd. Be all of this as it may, these are my feelings as a voter in the 2008 presidential race when having to choose between Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain.
As a highly-educated, professional urban dweller in my early 30’s, statistics would say that I am an Obama supporter. And that I am. This does not, however, blind me to Obama’s weaknesses and McCain’s strengths.
Obama is a neophyte to national governance with only three-plus years in the Senate. His foreign policy experience is minimal at a time where we are faced with the challenges of two wars, the continued fight against terrorism, and a newly resurgent Russia making us feel like it’s 1968. Obama’s newness to national politics could also be worrisome on domestic issues. Does being an Illinois state senator really make him ready to deal with the faltering economy, the energy and housing crises, and the emergence of China and India as major economic powers?
But don’t we as a country need change and doesn’t Obama represent it better than anyone? America needs to be united, brought together across the chasms of race, religion and party, and this is exactly Obama’s message. Do we not, further, need a new approach to foreign policy in order to reestablish our leadership role in the world? And, of the economy, it is certain that we need a different approach than has been practiced for the past eight years by the Bush administration and, likely, would continue through a McCain administration.
Oh, but McCain, how he carries so much of what Obama lacks. The man is a Navy veteran and longtime member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He is an experienced foreign policy hand. He is presidential, dignified and possesses the gravitas, via age and experience, that Obama lacks. And while he has consistently voted with the Bush administration vote in the Senate (100% of the time in 2008 and 95% in 2007), the man is no doctrinaire. He was a leader of the bipartisan Gang of 14 movement on judicial appointments, for example.
But, he is so boring. He sedates rather than inspires. He himself has said he knows little about the economy. And, despite his maverick persona, as a career Republican and essential Bush loyalist, he hardly represents change, unity or the new beginning that so many Americans long for.
So, with McCain we have foreign policy expertise, experience and gravitas but economic ignorance and a continuation of an awful eight years of American governance. With Obama we have hope, change and inspiration. We have a fresh approach to the economy, health care and foreign policy. But we have a man who is green in dealing with the rest of the world and green in operating within our own national government.
Why, why must I choose?
I want gravitas and inspiration. I want a wealth of knowledge and experience and a fresh approach to running our country. I want a new beginning but not with an inexperienced leader.
I want it all. But I will have to choose, have to sacrifice and, in the end, have to be dissatisfied.
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August 28th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Ari, I hear you, and I have a solution. I’m just as cool and young as Obama and I have a solution to all international conflict: arm wrestling. If elected president I will challenge all of our enemies to an arm wrestling competition. If I win in N. Korea Kim, for example, he has to allow his citizens to emigrate and also protect freedom of the press. If I lose, he gets take pictures of me in a headlock wincing with pain. Such images would do wonders for his PR staff. I’m sure he’d take the offer. Likewise, if I beat one of the big tribal leaders on the Pakistani border, he and 10 of his top aids have to take jobs as insurance claims adjusters in India. If I lose, they get to light my ring finger and all 10 toe nails on fire. I’m pretty strong so I think my odds are good no matter who I’m up against.
What’s important is that we don’t lose hope. If America digs deep enough, and puts me in office, we can provide the solutions the world needs.