The political season kicks into high gear for me today. This afternoon I am heading down to the grand opening of the new Obama headquarters in downtown Bakersfield. It will be nice to rub shoulders with some other local people who share my enthusiasm about the historic campaign of Barack Obama. I have been following the race for the White House very closely since I got back from vacation about five weeks ago. I have watched a significant amount of both the Republican and Democratic convention over the past two weeks and what I have seen and heard has reinforced my belief more than ever that Obama is the right person at this time to lead our country...and...the John McCain/Sara Palin ticket would be a disaster.

I'll refrain myself from going into all the reasons why I think John McCain would be a bad choice but I would like to mention one incident that for me sums up why I don't think the country should give the keys to the kingdom to McCain and his understudy Sarah Palin. About three weeks ago McCain and Obama appeared at Rick Warren's church to field questions from Pastor Warren about a whole host of issues ranging from war to their own personal faith. The one question and response that jumped out to me more than any other was Warren's question about evil. Warren asked both candidates whether they believed in evil and if they did, what would they do about it. Both candidates answered that they believed in evil but it was "how" they defined evil that was most telling to me. Obama described evil as something that exists in our cities, homes, and abroad while McCain limited his description to evil to the terrorists who are "out there"...and...McCain promised to hunt down Osama Bin Ladin and his terrorist network and destroy them.

Last week during Barack Obama's acceptance speech he asserted that John McCain does care about the country but he just doesn't get it and I couldn't agree more. After listening to John McCain off and on for months now John McCain, like many of his followers, McCain seems to see the world in terms of black and white, the good guys and the bad guys... and...his prescription...rattle the saber,flex our military muscle, continue Bush's tax breaks for the rich and simply sit back and watch the trickle down effect restore our economy back to the golden days of the 1990's.... Obama has been criticized by some critics and members of the media for being too nuanced in his response to the challenges that lay ahead but from my perspective Obama's leanings towards nuance reflects that "he does" understand the complexity of the world and he does see the big picture of what is going on not only in our country but the world abroad...while John McCain's general outlook to the challenges ahead reminds me of George Bush who rode into Washington on a white stallion waving his sword but is now going to leave town soon on a donkey. McCain may not be clone of George Bush but from everything I have seen and observed during this campaign his "worldview" seems too hauntingly familiar to that of George Bush.