Anger management

The presidential candidates gave the public a glimpse of how they might handle a crisis when, last week, the financial meltdown awoke the nation's paranoia.

Obama displayed a calm demeanor, while McCain threatened to fire people left and right who didn't have a drill in their hands. Even those people the president doesn't have the authority to terminate. At one campaign stop -- a day after when McCain was reminded of the "firing line" -- he said the FEC chairman should resign. He meant the head of the SEC - the Security Exchange Commission, not the guy running the Federal Elections Commission.

McCain essentially blamed Obama for the mess on Wall Street -- you know, the same guy with no experience because he's only been in the Senate long enough for a cup of coffee. Obama countered by saying McCain was in panic-mode. A nicer way -- if you can believe it -- than saying Mr. Angry Man isn't able to contain his temperment. The GOP as reactionary is another way to attach McCain to four more years of Bush's Old Frontier cowboy justice league.

McMaverick is anything but. What kind of maverick picks a running mate in order to pander to the right wing of his party that never trusted him? He then tries to paint his running mate as a maverick. But some cable TV news ain't letting him get away with it, dadgummit! Sarah Palin is more like Bush than John McCain is more like Bush? Let's see, she likes putting yes men and women in positions of authority and usually disposes of people who disagree with her. Isn't that politics as usual? In any event, Bush has certainly lowered the bar so even Palin can limbo under it. The Bush comparison ain't all, goombahs. TV cable news says Sister Sarah is even like Dick Cheney (with lipstick, of course.) What, a vice president who is actually the president? C'mon, not again. Still, last week at a rally in Iowa Palin said "That won't happen in a Palin-McCain administration!"

It's been said time and again that McCain's pick of Palin doesn't reflect well on his decision-making. Palin may yet prove the pundits wrong (and the Cubs will win the World Series.) If so, McCain may be in for some difficult times ahead if he wins. Palin won't be your conventional do nothing VP. In fact, because she's the darling of the right wing lunatic fringe, their agenga will trample anything McCain can remember he wants to get done. He won't be able to "work across the aisle" because Palin and the right won't even let him reserve a seat. Palin will be the power behind the throne. McCain will be the window-dressing. You would think it would be the other way around because of appearance sake. Politics is the art of deception, fellow voters.

At least America won't have to be concerned about McCain's health over the next four years should he win -- karma, poetic justice, whatever you want to call it demands he lives to regret his first important decision as a presidential nominee.