Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Playing not to Lose--implementing the Prevent Defense too soon

The debates last night treated the American public and the rest of world to more of the same: Two candidates who are trying not to lose the election in November and one of them is definitely going to lose.

In pro-football, near the end of the game, the team with the most points on the board sometimes goes into what is known as the "Prevent" Defense. The Prevent Defense is designed to bend but not allow a potentially winning score from the other team. The idea of giving up a lot of ground in the middle of the football field to ensure that a winning score does not occur often results in total failure. I'm sure it works in theory--but in practice knowledgeable fans know that the prevent defense is a recipe for disaster.

In the case of the debate--I'm not sure either candidate has a verifiable lead. Although, if you listen to NBC news, Obama will be our next president based upon projections showing that he has to win only one of the six states still up for grabs in the Electoral College voting.

Back to the debate--so what was new or different from the previous debate? Nothing. I was frustrated at one point when a question about Afghanistan addressed to Obama turned into a diatribe about how it shouldn't have been a problem if the situation had been handled differently.

Great--but it is a problem and how are you going to deal with it? That is the key part.

I don't want a President who is going to waste valuable decision making time reviewing why a problem shouldn't be a problem--deal with it! What are you going to do. And in the end, what he said was nothing. I felt bad for the person who asked the question as she never got an answer from the man who would be President.

Both candidates are trying to win by looking backwards. I want a President who is looking into the future. They spend too much time on voting records and all the has been stuff.

We're in a bad place, I get it. The economy is in trouble. I get it. Our foreign policy is in a shambles except for our real allies, I get it. Answer me this. What are you going to do about these things from this moment on? Focus in that. Yeah, it's important to understand how we got here, but turn around and look into the future.

I miss Ronald Reagan. He had a vision. He made me, a citizen of this great country, part of the means to achieve the vision.

I loved the question from the Internet, the last question of the night, "What don't you know and how will you figure out what it is" or something like that. Obama couldn't admit that he didn't know everything or had a plan for what he didn't know. It was way too much "I". McCain was clear about what he didn't know, and plausible, but again way too much emphasis on "I" and not the "We" as in "We the people . . . "

I wish one of these evenly matched men would decide not to worry about "not losing" and decide to win the election--for us, for the United States, for my children and their children, and for the world.

Take a risk--make us part of the vision of the future! And then let's not look back but always look forward.

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