Obama and McCain at Saddleback

I'm not going to go over everything that happened at Saddleback between Rick Warren and Barack Obama and John McCain.

But I can say that what is impressive and disappointing about Barack Obama were both on display. He seemed self confident, sincere, and reasonable. BUT.

But when he quoted the book of Matthew about how Christ said whatever we do to the least of these we've done unto him, my first thought was who are the least of these but the unborn? Is there someone lesser who could qualify as the least? Obama was apparently confident that Pastor Warren wouldn't drive a Mac Truck through that one, or else he's tone deaf to his own faux-sincere rhetoric.

I've read both of Obama's books. Dreams From My Father is a nice read, actually. His narrative voice carries the reader along, all the way to Africa. I had some issues with it, but all in all, it's his story and he can tell it as he likes. The Audacity of Hope, on the other hand, was ultimately irritating, and he was irritating in the same way at the Saddleback Church forum. At Saddleback, as in Audacity, he "gets you into the tent" with his seeming sincerity, charm, intelligence, and wit. He makes you think he listens and cares. Then he defaults to the extreme liberal position every time. After a while, you throw up your hands and just give up on the guy. It's like Lucy pulling the football from Charlie Brown. Every time.

The Audacity of Hope barely mentioned the Reverend Wright. It wasn't about him. Joining Rev. Wright's church wasn't about what it appeared to be either, I suspect, or Wright would have been mentioned more as an influence. It was about faking sincerity, Obama's specialty. Who was it who said, "Sincerity is the thing; if you can fake that, you've got it made?"

McCain's story about the North Vietnamese camp guard who showed McCain a kindness and then briefly drew a cross in the dirt was moving, and seemed real to me. McCain became animated whenever a question touched on his country's interests. I think he's the real deal, despite my policy differences with him.

I've wanted to like Obama, or else I wouldn't have read both his books. I still hope, if he becomes president, that he listens to the little angel on his shoulder, who tells him to be sincere and to care, rather than the little devil who tells him merely to look sincere. But I think McCain is more capable of grabbing that devil and drop-kicking him.