ETHICS

The issue of ethics was brought to my attention by a community college instructor of mine. She teaches both finance and ethics classes. When that teacher brought in two speakers to her personal finance class hawking their services I found myself questioning her ethics. After all, the students are expecting learning experience not a sales experience. When one guest speaker came to explain long term health care insurance and bad mouthed Consumers Reports, I suspected the worst. CR warned about the pitch and offered specifics that matched the speakers pitch. Wow! I wonder, could the class instructor be receiving a kick back for every student signing up? I do not know but she is a client of both of her guest speakers. The instructor apparently has ignored the ethical implications even if there is nothing inappropriate in their relationships.

My dentist performed root canal and installed a new bridge in my mouth. The entire area is still soar and the bridge is uncomfortable. The bill is $3,500. I pointed out to him that when my mechanic makes a mistake he refunds my money. The dentist still wants to be paid.

This issue is even more significant in the current race for president. Smears and innuendo appear to be a stock in trade part of the McCain campaign. Are some of the concerns raised by McCain legitimate? Yes. The problem is that the primary focus of John McCain has been smears. The lack of focus on real issues is conspicuously beyond belief. Perhaps his slogan should be “Service, Country First, Ethics Last.”

The Bill Ayers thing is totally ridiculous. The Annenberg Foundation sponsored a group that included both Ayers and Obama. This is hardly a terrorist plot and is confirmed by factcheck.org.

Not yet mentioned by the McCain campaign but many of his surrogates is the Reverend Wright issue. It is a legitimate question when people ask how Obama could not have known about Wright’s views of America. There is sufficient evidence that Obama did know about those views.

John McCain opposed the Bush tax cuts when they were first proposed. More recently he has given wholehearted support for those cuts and wants them made permanent. Was that a flip flop or an ethics issue?

Finally there is the question of Sarah Palin. John McCain supports her without question but many highly respected conservatives doubt her ability to hold the position of president. Isn’t this a breach of ethics for McCain to offer her as his stand in?

The Third and Final Debate

It was John McCain’s best performance. He was sharp. He was emotional. He was convincing. Barack Obama’s performance was not great but was good enough. I would call this debate a tie. Neither won this event.

John McCain had to convince sufficient numbers of voters to change their decision to vote for him rather than Barack Obama. I do not think he accomplished his objective. I am quite sure that his campaign staff will say he has turned the tide. The polls will tell the story in the next few days.

Personally there are at least three reasons that I could not vote for John McCain.

He is very old and there is a distinct possibility that Sarah Palin will become president.
He opposes Roe versus Wade. The over turning of that ruling would set this country back 35 years. Before that ruling women were going to back alley doctors to obtain an abortion. That is barbaric.
The health care plan proposed by John McCain will result in higher costs to Americans. This nation needs real care at affordable costs for everyone.

John McCain is a fighter as he proved in the Republican nominee selection process. He will campaign vigorously into the evening of November 3.

Concerned with Race, Religion, and Ethnicity

Is there a Bradley Effect in recent polls showing Barack Obama’s lead of as much as 11%? I do not know. For those not familiar with the theory it is that participants in polls will lie about their willingness to vote a Black man. Tom Bradley, was the Black mayor of Los Angeles. He ran for governor of California in 1982. Although many polls showed him significantly leading, he lost the election.

I fear that the theory has merit. The reason is that there have been too many other Black candidates who narrowly won or lost after polling data showed a significant lead. Douglas Wilder, former Virginia governor, is an outstanding example of someone who had polls showing a 9% lead but won by less than 1%. Others include Harold Washington’s four-point victory in the 1983 Chicago mayoral race despite a double-digit lead in polls, and David Dinkins’ two-point victory over Rudy Giuliani in 1989 to be New York‘s mayor despite a 14-point margin in late polls.

I personally believe that voting polls are trend indicators at best. It’s not just people not telling the truth but many people not wanting to participate in any poll. I question the validity of polling when so many people consider poll taker questions an invasion of privacy.

Sadly, too many Americans are more concerned with race, religion, and ethnicity than their own well being. This example from a John McCain rally is a most telling indicator. It is so bad in this country that people were opposed to Mitt Romney as the Republican nominee because his religion is Mormon. I always thought Mormon is a religious sect just like Lutherans, Baptists, or Catholics. What do we Jews know?

God gave man the right to choose. He chose to eat the apple. I conclude that Americans have the right to choose John McCain. Well, the selection of president may be a flawed process but the U.S.A. is still the best place in the world. I many not be happy but I will accept the results. Will those bigots accept the results if Barack Obama is elected?

Think about it…

Let me see if I have this straight…..

* If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you’re ‘exotic, different.’

* Grow up in Alaska eating moose burgers, a quintessential American story.

* If your name is Barack you’re a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.

* Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you’re a maverick.

* Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.

* Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you’re well grounded.

* If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate’s Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran’s Affairs committees, you don’t have any real leadership experience.

* If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you’re qualified to become the country’s second highest ranking executive.

* If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you’re not a real Christian.

* If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you’re a Christian.

* If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.

* If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state’s school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you’re very responsible.

* If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family’s values don’t represent America’s.

* If you’re husband is nicknamed ‘First Dude’, with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn’t register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

OK, much clearer now.

The Town Hall Debate That Did Not Happen

The second McCain-Obama debate was very disappointing. Rather than offering a plan to revive the economy they restated their previous proposals for tax cuts and health care. Both of them used the same words they have used before in previous speeches and discussions.

There was exactly one new proposal and that was offered by John McCain (he insisted that it was his new idea). He proposed buying defaulted mortgages at discounted rates and enabling the impacted home owners to keep their homes. The Associated Press reported that the authority to buy individual home mortgages is in the just passed $700 billion bill so it isn’t really a new idea.

The dismissive “that one” remark by John McCain definitely displayed the intense dislike, possibly hatred, he holds for Barack Obama.

This debate provided no new insights about either man. Thankfully there were no character assassinations. John McCain looked older than he has in recent appearances. Perhaps that was because Barack Obama looked young.

This debate was boring and uninformative.

A Pundit Depression

During this election season everyone has an opinion. Just watch CNN. The number of “experts” in the current season seems to be growing daily. There are so many of them that they are crowded around two tables. I thought Bill Schneider was their primary commentator but wait a minute there is Jack Cafferty but wait minute what about David Gergen. Oh I forgot Gloria Borger, Campbell Brown, and Jeffrey Toobin. I haven’t even mentioned the commentators who clearly support the Democrat or Republican with blind faith.

If you change the channel to Fox News or MSNBC you get their lineups of commentators who must amount to another few dozen.

What will happen to all of these people after November 4? I do not know. I watch them hoping to hear another idea rather than the same comments using slightly different words. It’s like watching “Ground Hog Day” over and over. I think I will spend more time watching Comedy Central’s Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report.