And you guys hyperventilate about trivia like SNL. Sheesh.
Hyperventilate? Hardly!
When I was being trained to prepare sermons, one of the best pieces of advice I received was to remember that one cannot cram every single detail about the Good News into every single sermon. That's why a preacher preaches at least 52 of them a year, year after year. That same principle applies in internet forums. I won't dispute that the serious issues you raise are important. Some of them have been discussed in this thread or others.
But a candidate's appearance on a television show is a valid thing to consider within the larger context of the election and politics in general. I believe that most of the problems this nation face that might be traced to having the wrong people elected to office are the direct result of people being guided by their emotions instead of their intellects in selecting who to vote for. Sadly, some of the Presidential candidates who would have possibly been the best leaders for this nation are those who failed to make it through more than a few early primary elections, and who never even got close to getting the nomination, let alone the getting elected President.
It also needs to be said that another probably more serious reason for the nation's problems is the constant erosion of the Church's position as a source of moral education and God's Grace. But given two problems, and the nature of forums such as these, the problem of the decline of the Church's influence is grist for other threads. This thread is about politics, specifically about the sad fact that too many people look to the state and political leaders for the things that they should look to God and God's church to find. The premise that one candidate is depicted as a quasi-mystical messiah figure is part of some sort of new pseudo religion is a gross exaggeration of reality, but it is based on a small kernel of reality.
No political leader can accomplish anything of importance without first getting elected. The tactics required to get elected in the United States in 2008 might appear trivial. Indeed, they often are trivial. But given how many people don't have a clue about how American politics works, especially those who are voters, the candidate who ignores such trivia ends up having the same amount of influence over America's future as people like Micheal Dukakis, Ross Perot, and Bob Dole. They end up on the outside, looking in, powerless to do much of anything.
This election, like most Presidential elections in recent years will be close. A few minor shifts in the opinions of undecided voters that convinces them to choose one candidate or the other, or a a lack of campaign ads to energize either candidate's solid support base and the results could be very different from what the polls currently predict.
If McCain's appearance on Saturday Night Live convinces a few percent of the conservative Republicans who planned to stay home next Tuesday that even though he's a RINO, he's still an affable enough person to warrant going to the polls to vote, then it was a tactical move that would help his chances of getting elected.
So please, remember that a long, long journey takes many steps. There's nothing wrong with discussing one or two of the steps along the way. I'm a student of history, especially military history. Generals might plan massive military campaigns, but often the success or failure of those campaigns hinge on whether or not some platoon sergeant makes the right tactical decisions in a minor fire-fight. It might seem trivial in the larger scheme of things when looking at the stakes involved in winning or losing a war. But that doesn't mean that such minor details aren't meaningful and worth considering.
