SEX. LIES AND DODDERING OLD MEN

As the 2008 presidential campaign heads into the final two months, it appears to resemble less and less a break with the past than a continuation of trends that do not bode well for selecting a leader capable of understanding the world in which the United States must interact and able to command respect. Instead of a spirited campaign about the issues, we are forced to wallow in a seemingly endless sea of distortions, lies and ideological palliatives that obfuscate issues, embarrass the United States even more among key allies in Europe and make it likely that the most mediocre of talents will ascend to the Oval Office.

Some may take comfort in that. After all, isn't it better to have an average joe in the White House, someone you can sit down and have a beer with, rather than listen to doddering old men prattle on about global warming, health care or the fate of the middle class? Bush certainly embodied the former, and his frat boy image from the past, filtered through born again Christian ideology, gave hope that an average joe was there for us. He was someone who understood us, had compassion for our concerns and was just like us. He was a true patriot standing tall and true above flames of the crashing twin towers and leading us to victory against Al Qaeda.

Indeed, Bush played the schoolyard well. He had nicknames for everyone, both at home and abroad. Some were flattering, some not. He was playful with foreign leaders and could look them straight in the eye in order to assess their worthiness. He played T-ball with the kids on the White House lawn and danced before the cameras.

In the meantime, when it came to the classroom, Bush's intellectual disdain was apparent for all to see. Bone-headed policies were pursued. Preparation for natural disasters was turned over to a dilettante. Facts were forged to justify what at best could be described as highly risky gambits. Critics were accused of lacking patriotism or, worse, of giving outright comfort to the enemy. It was a heckuva job.

Damage was done and the international standing of the United States fell to such an extraordinary low that the United States could barely muster any effective opposition to the Russian incursion into Georgia. For all the rhetoric about sending aid to Georgia or coming to its rescue, the European Union under the leadership of Nicholas Sarkozy has played a much more important role in trying to extract Russia from Georgian soil. McCain might proclaim that "we are all Georgians". But, his boast has fallen on deaf ears. No one has rallied round his pitch and the prospect that Georgia will join NATO, let alone be rearmed by the United States, is a dim as the chances of offshore drilling making a significant dent in the world oil price. Claim what you will McCain/Palin, reality has a way of imposing its own priorities and timelines.

Nevertheless, as the political campaign proceeds, lies, distortions and fabrications proceed apace. With every new revelation that arises, the Obama campaign seems to flounder more and more. Is it so perplexed by the audacity of the ads, the gullibility of the media and the willingness of vast sectors of the American public to accept whatever the McCain campaign creates at face value that the last shred of dignity has been stripped from the American political process?

It's one thing to make a claim that cannot be supported by the evidence. Politicians of all stripes habitually make such mistakes. Usually, however, they have the honesty of drop further discussion lest they be made the object of ridicule. Policy proposals that appear absurd upon closer inspection usually are condemned to the dustbin never again to see the light of day. Eventually, real issues get debated and discussed and sometimes the public is better informed as a result.

Earlier, it might have been hoped that old patterns would hold. McCain's idiotic proposal to suspend the federal gasoline tax between Memorial Day and Labor Day had its fifteen minutes of shame. It didn't catch on, despite Ms. Clinton's "me-too" support, because it made no sense. Saving 18 cents per gallon wasn't going to help much when gasoline was rising more than 20 cents per gallon per week.

On the other hand, Obama's windfall profits tax on big oil didn't even last five minutes, let alone distract America's debate about energy for the full fifteen. It failed when Carter proposed and implemented it in the 70s. And, the windfall profits tax wasn't going to produce an additional drop of crude oil.

Yet, ever since the selection of Mrs. Palin to be vice-president on the McCain ticket, all bets are off. True, McCain has stopped claiming that Mrs. Palin made a profit on eBay by selling an executive jet used by the Alaskan governor. She had, of course, fruitlessly listed it on eBay several times and cost the Alaskan taxpayers listing fees. But, the plane was not sold on the internet. It was sold at a loss through a private broker. The facts notwithstanding, Mrs. Palin claims over and over that she sold the plane over and over again. What a lie!

Now, we hear that Mrs. Palin took on big oil to get the Trans-Canada Gas Pipeline. Well, she did - sort of. She did commit the legislature to ante up some money to help a non-big oil firm secure the permits to build a natural gas pipeline across Canada in order to market Alaskan natural gas to the lower 48 without going through the big oil companies that dominate the Alaskan economy and political process. But, the pipeline hasn't been built. It might never be built. And, it might take even more concerted effort to get an underground pipeline across the Yukon which has been in the works since the 70s to see the light of day. Perhaps Mrs. Palin should remain in Juneau and fight for its completion rather than use one small step in a lengthy process to tout her ability to take on big oil and boost her political career. It doesn't do a thing to answer America's energy dilemma.

But, then, why should it? McCain has ratched expectations so low and hastened the speed with which offshore oil could be extracted that we should expect a miracle within the first 100 days of a McCain administration as it transforms water into oil. When critics point out that even under the best of circumstances - the waving of all environmental safeguards by expediting the federal approval process and kowtowing to every demand imaginable that big oil might seek to exact - there simply is a lack of offshore drilling rigs to meet any significant boost in oil production in the near future. Straight talk is nothing more than pure bull.

And, now there's sex. The McCain campaign claims that Obama would teach sex education to kindergartners, at least that was the supposed aim of legislation supported by Mr. Obama in the Illinois state house. Really?

No, Obama supported a program to teach elementary age children about sexual predators. Children would receive instruction in recognizing the inappropriateness of certain interactions between adults and young children and in learning what they could and should do about it. Is that preparing kids for fornication as the McCainites would have it? Hardly.

On the other hand, we have a candidate in Palin who talks the talk of abstinence education and seeks to impose it on the rest of us even though the sparse bit of scientific data suggests that abstinence education makes little difference in the rate of teenage sex and might even worsen the rate of teenage pregnancy. And how is it possible that a mother can be so clueless about the sex life of her teenage daughter? Yes, it's a private matter, but it was a very important private matter for a highly religious family. Worse: it is an insult to those families that do practice abstinence and are able to raise children who resist the temptation to engage in adolescent sex and juggle the demands of work and home. This is hypocrisy to the nth degree.

Americans can and should expect their would-be leaders to be frank, forthcoming and intellectually honest with voters. Such an approach might even encourage discouraged voters to cast aside their apathy and turn out at the polls. It might even produce a leadership that could craft credible policies at home and abroad and thereby regain international respect and allow the United States to once again assume a leadership role.

But, the McCain campaign handlers seem all too willing to deny us such an election. Rather than debate real issues, we are asked to set aside logic and reason in order to believe that Obama was attacking Palin by referring to McCain's economic policies - a continuation of Bush's failed policies - as putting lipstick on a pig.

What's truly sad in all of this is that, as an educator, I am charged with teaching my students to become lifelong learners and to learn to think critically. I am supposed to prepare them for the intense academic competition that will land the best and the brightest in the top educational institutions.

At the same time, I am a mandated reporter who has to be ever watchful for instances of child sexual abuses. Once I had the fortunate misfortune to luck into a case of child sexual abuse that other adults had missed. The child, a six-grade boy, was hyperactive, prone to disruptive behavior and reluctant to remain on task. Yet, for some reason, this child chose to open up to me and begin the painful process of unraveling the history of child abuse that he had experienced for several years with the upstairs neighbor whom his working mom had entrusted to his care. Fourteen years later that incident remains vivid to me. And now, I am compelled to listen to the deliberate distortion of a sensible legislative proposals to proactively deal with child sexual abuse just so one side can gain points and paint the opponent as a lascivious liberal.

All that we are supposed to do as educators is the exact opposite of what we see on the local, state and national level. Once academia is left behind, we see the rule of the playground. Grab whatever you can in politics and business. Use whatever means necessary to succeed. Walk away with the best deal possible even if the results of your actions has been abject failure. And we wonder why the United States seems less and less capable of averting the fate of Argentina since the 1920s, a country that once numbered among the world's wealthiest, but now struggles to keep intact its middle class.

Lies, distortions and doddering old men fiddle while the middle class frets. McCain/Palin might succeed and win an election under the most improbable of circumstances. For their handlers, it might be a political miracle even greater than the upset win of Truman over Dewey. Can the rest of us, however, survive the consequences of their success?