Book group discussed McCain book, mixed results...

For the most part, it has been a really good experience to participate in a nonfiction book group with a few other adults here in town over the past couple years. We have read everything from Zakaria to de Tocqueville, and discussed them fully. Our make up is more liberal than conserative, but most viewpoints are represented. Actually, It is usually more liberal than not, but having a mix does help us stay civil ordinarily.

However, when we discussed John McCain's autobiogaphy of his formative years, "Faith of our Fathers", it was not one of our better dates. My wife read it cover to cover, and I forced myself to skim it. The weird thing about this meeting was the fact that one of our members, we will call him "R", is a guy who s liberal on social issues, but for some reason has decided that McCain is the better pick for president. R went off on a rant about Obama never having been in a situation that requires physical courage. Personally, I think that Obama is showing pretty good physical courage, considering what happened to Malcolm X and ML King Jr.

It's funny the way that people see what they want to see. I read, okay skimmed, this book about McCain, and I was thinking, what an immature little snot he was until he was taken prisoner  by the North Vietnamese. I read McCain's anecdotes about hiding a TV in a tunnel at the Naval Academy, then getting another guy to take the demerits for it because McCain would have been kicked out, then taking goofy daredevil risks with jet planes owned by Uncle Sam. I came away with a lack of respect for McCain's sense of honor, dspite all the time he spent talking about it. Actually, I did not develop a great deal of respect for his intellect either. The things he had to say about the Vietnam War seemed colored by his experience- but he did not seem able to get into the mind of a draftee grunt who saw the war from ground level instead of from the sky.

I had to vent a little about the lying content of mcCain's recent attack ads. I did not get much of a reply from the conservatives present on that one, I think their attitude was, that's just an unpleasant thing that good people have to do to get elected so they can go back to actually being good. I don't buy that end justifies the means thing. One of our members, let's call her "K", really sort of likes Obama's policies for the most part- other than abortion. For K, abortion is the ultimate deal breaker when it comes to voting. Nothing else really matters much, bottom line. I am not able to simplify reality to that extent, but K is. Even though there are things that K and I cannot discuss, K is a really good person, and I have to respect her.

I had to notice that most of the strong liberals did not show up. I tend to think that they had even more problems than I have had with the Palin selction and the attack ads, and they woke up and said to themselves "this could be a nice day, I am not going to ruin it by talking about McCain". Well, next month is "Dreams from my father", so I wonder who is going to fail to show up then......