Exposing Thorns: I'll understand if your heart has been won, but I'd like to know if I'm still in the game. Come on now, show me yourself.

This lyric comes from Griffin House, who I've been finding a lot of stuff I like from lately, this song is called Show Me Yourself. Check his website out by clicking the title above.

So I am trying to decide who I would like to vote for for President in 2008. To be fully honest I have made a couple of small contributions to the Obama 08 campaign. I would like to see him one of the last two in the conversation for the Democratic candidacy. I would vote for him.

I would currently also vote for Bill Richardson from New Mexico. Those both seem like big picture thinkers and positive, accomplished leaders.

There are many candidates I currently could not vote for: Clinton seems WAY too ambitious and always has for my palate. Guliani is running around Texas telling Evangelical Conservatives that though he sees things diferently he'll basicaly let them decide who judges should be. Forgive me, but Evangelical Conservatives from Texas probably should be barred from making any decisions for a while. Edwards is less experienced than he was last time as far as I'm concerned. I'm worried Mitt Romney might become a puppet for the guys running things now, but he's Mormon which is more than a small problem for some of those folks; I just don't like his stances on a few big issues. Kucinich is hilarious, comic relief, like when Gollum is Smeagel in LOTR. Joe Biden blew his chances out of the gate with his gaffe about Obama. All other candidates are either Republicans (a party I'd like to not have to vote for) or so marginal Democrats and Independents they aren't important to mention.

This leaves one candidate unaccounted for; a man that in 2000 I was ineterested in a bit before the Bush money destroyed him. And a man that throughout most of George W. Bush's six years in office has been a seemingly perfect compromise for all of us to handle things running so quickly afoul. Ofcourse I am talking about John McCain, the Senator from Arizona and Republican candidate for President.

Two things came my way this week, one recent clip and one old clip, that have me just baffled at how a man whom I find so easy to admire, with an undeniable track record, and leadership pedigree unmatched in the field could have slipped so far away from my interest, indeed nearing dislike in a short amount of time. The first happened on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Stewart has had McCain on a number of times and they always seem quite impressed by one another, but this week Stewart had relevant and significant questions to ask a Republican running for President and McCain found his way into the crosshairs of his solid and important questions. Check it out if you didn't see it. Sorry I couldn't get this to link within the post.

Part 1 http://www.ifilm.com/video/2848395
Part 2 http://www.ifilm.com/video/2848396

Now, anyone who talked to me five years ago could tell you that I was opposed to the invasion of Iraq as I saw it as a distraction from Afghanistan. That's not wordplay. I was totally against a war in Iraq. I felt we rushed to it, let go of more peaceful options, and entered into a war both hastily and misinformed. I was vocal then and I am vocal now that I think it was a misstep. I voted for John Kerry not out of great love for him or excitement about his leadership, but out of intense disagreement with the current administration's leadership in Iraq and for the most part domestically as well. Ofcourse it is easy to make such claims in hindsight. Now I am looking for a LEADER who can bring something postive out of this mess we have created.

So I turned to McCain, a soldier and plain spoken leader, a straightforward dealer of truth, and an insider vocal about his own disagreements with the Bush Administration. Even a year ago I was excited about the chance to vote for him. And perhaps he has to fly right now to get the nomination, but I am simply not willing to vote for someone who has been purchased or flipped like an informant. So I saw his appearance on The Daily Show as a great failure. It wasn't fair that he was taken to task for the Administrations mistakes, except that he is now supporting their futher weak strategies and seeking to be the LEADER of our country in the world after Geroge W. Bush. What I agree with that he said is that we are there now. It has happened. But I find it laughable that this new strategy of surging 10,000 troops will turn the tide. And I find it offensive that this administration and its allies assail my warranted questions and doubts as treason while they have let down our troops from day one in word and deed. McCain was speaking on behalf of his party and our President, a member of that party. He seemed like all the rest.

And that is tragic, because once he made me laugh. Once, he even began to inspire me that honesty and wit and a solid perspective on the importance of things done in Washington, Hollywood, and Iraq might be found in a LEADER. I'm not sure any of the field is such a LEADER. I am now holding out hope for two men, both unlikely candidates and nearly sure to let me down. But allow me to remove any speculation that John McCain could have my vote and my support. Not in 2008 anyway, perhaps if he'd been allowed to lead in 2000 he could have been my candidate.

Such a disregard for accountability and honest assesment is a character flaw; a character flaw I am tired of living with in my LEADER. Just so we're clear, I will miss the moments I considered following John McCain. Maybe he'll have some post politics career as a sometimes comic and pitch man like Bob Dole and I can like him again. He was great for a while.

That was the second clip I came acrossed; proof of his former mojo.