My Endorsement For President

As I have written on this blog in the past, I do not believe we have had a good president in quite a while. In fact, Ronald Reagan was the best president in my lifetime, and he was mediocre at best. We as a nation are long overdue for a leader of great magnitude -- one who can help to end this increasing divide between us and also lead us into the right direction for the future.

Before I give my endorsement I'd like to express concern over where I believe America is headed. I think we are losing ourselves as a nation. I've alluded to this before -- we are on a path toward our own downfall. We as a nation have lost our way. You can see it in so many facets of our nation today.

It seems everyone has an excuse at the ready, but so few actually do the right thing. We spend more time watching celebrities self-destruct than we do watching our Constitution do the same. Companies, investors, teams, players, government officials, clergy -- cheat and usually get away with it.

If you've read enough from me you know I consider myself to be progressive. I do not believe that maintaining the status quo is healthy, and I recognize that we cannot go backward to some better time that exists only in our minds. We have to move forward as individuals and as a society in order to prevail as America should.

Looking at the relatively sorry crop of candidates running for our highest office this year does not give me comfort. For the most part, they are the same old power-hungry politicians who lie when they disparage their opponents and cry foul when it happens to them. Those in their camp only do the same.

Think about it. One candidate argued he was the better fit because he claimed to be for the troop surge before another candidate. Another candidate decided to call it a two person race, ignoring the fact that he was in third in delegates at the time (and remains so). Endorsing a rival of Hillary Clinton will net you an anti-woman label (read the NOW response to Ted Kennedy's endorsement here). Disconcerting is an understatement.

One candidate does offer me hope however. He apparently is doing the same for millions of others across the country as well, getting the younger voters excited and getting them to vote. He is not your standard run-of-the-mill politician, as I believe all of the others to be. He's Barack Obama.

The reasons I like him are many. He possesses the qualities of a leader -- the charisma, the ability to get people to listen. He recognizes his own humanity -- admitting his faults (what a concept!!) publicly is refreshing. He is intelligent. He has shown he is able to rise above the barrage of attacks thrown at him. Watching him handle Hillary-phile George Stephanopoulos on Sunday was wonderful.

Just as important as his leadership qualities is where he stands on issues. He is to the left of center -- a place I obviously stand. He is against the war in Iraq because that war is wrong, not because the polls told him to be against it. He is pro-choice. He believes in making necessary changes.

In addition, Obama is not like the other politicians running their campaigns. He isn't a poll-watcher, like Clinton or Romney. He isn't a W. II like Huckabee. He's not mired in controversy like Giuliani. And he hasn't been around the political block like McCain or Edwards.

I don't believe he can win the Democratic nomination, as there are far too many people from the Boomer generation that appear to be coming out strongly for Clinton. If he does manage to pull off a miracle and win the party nomination, he stands a good chance.

Either way, Obama is my candidate. He is where my hope for America lies.

Reason Number 787 To Root For The Giants

First, let me say that I am a Philadelphia Eagles fan. I have been a fan of the boys in green since about 1979 when I started to get into football. I still am an Eagles fan.

So, logically, I should be rooting against my team's arch rivals, the hated Giants. I mean, rooting for your team's enemy is one thing a sports fan should never do.

Unless, of course, they are playing the Patriots.

There are so many reasons why I am rooting for the Giants. There is the underdog factor -- certainly a big thing for any sports fan. There is the fact that they beat the Cowboys -- how can you really hate a team that does that? There is also that whole CHEATING thing hanging over the head of the entire New England franchise.

Not to mention Patriot fans and Boston Red Sox fans are one and the same.

This, however, is the icing on the cake. Check out the article in the Boston Herald.

As if displaying Boston's second city jealousy for the world to see isn't enough, let's review Jessica Heslam's world of ignorance, shall we?

In her feeble attempts to make Patriot fans appear superior to Giant fans she referenced the Yankees. Last I checked, the Yankees are not in the Super Bowl. This is a common mistake among those highly educated fans up to the northeast of New York. Each time the Patriots have won Super Bowls in the recent years, do you know what chant the Patriot fans yell? That's right, "Yankees suck!!!" Their inferiority complex has deluded them into thinking that not only every New York team is the Yankees, but every team in every sport is the Yankees. Perhaps all that northeastern chill has brought about an epidemic of paranoia in their oh, so educated minds.

Another odd argument was the charge that Patriot fans are somehow more "equal opportunity". In Ms. Heslam's zeal to put Boston over New York, she made a grave error here. Boston, the most segregated city north of the Mason-Dixon line, should never compare diversity to New York. It's just silly. I guess all that education seemed to have been wasted.

How does Ms. Heslam know the sophistication levels of Giant fans? How does she determine what Giant fans do, eat, or drink outside the stadium?

It is yet another example of a minor city's newspaper attempting to increase its stature by belittling a better place. I mean, Boston is a fine city. It has a nice river and was important to America about two hundred years ago. But, really, it is just another city. It isn't in the category of city that is a New York, Chicago or Los Angeles. And while it does have some wonderful institutions of education (as does New York -- I guess Ms. Heslam in her geocentric small-mindedness never heard of Columbia or NYU), those brilliant students, as she herself noted, hail from New York.

Belittle the Giants? Go right ahead. Slam Giants Stadium? Have at it. Say how much you hate New York teams? That's your right.

But don't try to knock New York or New Yorkers.

Jessica, you possess neither the brains nor the class to go that route.

GO GIANTS!!!