First, I realize that until someone “discovers” my so-called blog, I’m writing to myself. However, it seems to help with the frustration of watching my country seem to be fading into the sunset, and a large percentage of people not caring. I will say this, as I’ve watched Barack Obama make a trip through Europe and into the Middle East, it is very apparent that the rest of the world is waiting for the citizens of the US to wake up. I honestly believe that if by some strange miracle – like maybe fixed voting machines as per 2000 and 2004 – McCain is elected president we will be considered a third world nation by the rest of the world. I’ve seen some incredible numbers as to the excitement Obama is generating in the rest of the world and I’m hopeful that it is just a matter of time until more people in this country wake up. Back to my topic; can you imagine if we elect a self proclaimed “expert” on foriegn policy that doesn’t understand that the country of Chechoslovakia (I’m not ever sure how to spell it, but I’m not running for president and if I was I would figure it out!) has not existed for over 15 years, a person who talks about the Iraq/Pakastani border (evidently he’s thinking along with many of the rest of us that the ultimate outcome of the US invasion of Iraq will be the consolidation of Iraq and Iran – therefore calling it the Iraq-Pakistan border), and a person who is so unfamiliar with the Sunni-Shia rivalry in the Middle East that he suggested that the Shia in Iran were training and equipping the Sunni led Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. What I find very interesting is that the incompetence of McCain is much better understood outside the borders of this country. I’m wondering if this is because should the general public really understand what a bafoon he is and how unqualified he is to lead this country at this point in our history it would cost the media conglomerates millions because the upcoming election would be such a landslide. I mean, I can’t even picture republicans voting for this guy once they see him up close and personal as will be the case during this election cycle. I don’t believe a party has ever rebelled against a “presumptive nominee” before, but how could the republicans have come up with this guy? When I heard that he placed close to the bottom of his class in military college, something like 850 out of 860, I didn’t get the significance. But you put the fact he’s 72 years old (I’m 60 and have a good idea of what it means to be getting old and I can’t imagine electing a 72 year old person to the most important position in our country at such an important time in our history) with his apparent intellectual weakness and you look at all these gaffs he’s committing on a regular basis, and I honestly wonder how he could even get to this point. I really am concerned that the republican party is going to get hammered so hard in November that we will face the reverse of what got us to this point, and that is a democratic president along with a democratic congress. I truly believe that our founders devised the system of checks and balances to prevent what they called “tyranny of the majority” and while we are seeing the result of that from this batch of republicans that are hopefully on the way out, I don’t think a good dose of the same thing from the other side is going to solve anything. Obama calls himself a uniter and I hope that is the case, and I also hope that we can begin to elect people to congress, whether republican or democrat, that have the best interests of the public in mind. A good first step would be to eliminate the ability of congressional members from accepting any money from special interest groups – but that is a topic for another day.