Thanks, and the Debate

Another big gap since my last post.  I mentioned that I had worked 12 days in a row finally having a day off on Sept 23rd.  From there I worked another 12 days straight until this past weekend.  And, of course I am working a 2nd job, 3 nights a week from 10 PM until 4 AM, so it all added up to me getting sick late last week.  Nothing serious, just a horribly sore throat and a hacking cough. I have been waiting for the stuffed up head and drippy nose but nothing yet but I am sure it is on the way.  Still, my wife and I managed to spend a lovely weekend at the beach.  The highlight of which was falling asleep in the sun with the waves lapping gently onto the shore on a sunny, perfect, blue sky, Saturday afternoon with my wife dozing in the chair beside me.  A memory that will last forever.

Anyway, despite my lack of posting, my "audience" has been growing of late.  My bog had over 1600 hits last month, a full 50% more than any month previous.  And this month is on pace to equal that total even though this is my first post. 

So, a big THANK YOU to my loyal readers.  I know you could all fit comfortably in one of those half sized yellow school buses, but thank you just the same.  I suspect that some of you are sharing my blog with friends, and perhaps this is why my "hits" are increasing.  (Mike, I suspect you of this, thanks)  If so, I am glad you feel that my words are worth sharing and that you continue to check my blog for new posts.  I have also noticed an increase in my foreign readership, blasts of interest from the United Kingdom, Russia and Germany.  It truly amazes me that I can sit at my desk in Perkasie, PA, post my thoughts on this blog, and have those words read by people who don't know me in lands I have never been to or may never see.  The incredible power of the Internet to shrink our world, make us all closer, and perhaps more aware that we are all riding together on this big, blue marble as it races around the universe.  

Due to my burgeoning illness, I did not watch the debate last Wednesday.  By all accounts, Mitt Romney "won" hands down.  President Obama looked tired and uninterested.  Perhaps he was feeling like I did.  If so, I am sure he will make a better showing in the next round.  But if he is just tired, tired of the pressure and enormous responsibility of the presidency, then perhaps it is time for a change. 

I often wonder how a president, a CEO, or anyone with the responsibility to make life and death decisions, how those people justify their choices when they send young men and women into battle or close factories to increase profit.  I know I would struggle with such choices, not that I wouldn't be able to make them, but that I might not be able to live with them once made.  Does it take a special mind set that can set aside the knowledge that ones decisions can so negatively effect their fellow Americans, and instead focus on the larger picture, the bigger, hopefully more positive outcome?  We all studied Machiavelli and learned about the means justifying the ends.  Is it a prerequisite that a president must truly believe in that maxim in order to make those life changing decisions?  If so, perhaps President Obama does not have that internal strength while through his time as CEO in the private sector, Mitt Romney does.

Notwithstanding everything else I have written in my past blogs on this matter, my concern for the future should Romney have the chance to nominate the next Supreme Court Justice, my disillusionment with our current form of capitalism where the resources and wealth seem to be flowing up towards those with the most and away from the middle class.  Despite my truly deep seated belief that a Romney Presidency will be bad for hard working Americans like myself, and especially for those unlike Mitt Romney, the poor, and the disadvantaged, and those without the benefit of rich parents and/or white skin, I wonder if President Obama has the conviction to make his vision of America come to pass.  The guts, if you will, to fight for his beliefs despite the fact that many will challenge him along the way, and that some will be hurt by the decisions he makes.   

I used to believe, fully, that we need men and women of strong moral character to lead our nation.  That those with the understanding that every American, from the richest to the poorest, the smartest to the dullest, the most ambitious to the laziest, that every American makes up the land we call America, contributes to the traits that make us very good at times, and misguided at others.  But perhaps, pure evil aside, we need less morality and more Machiavelli.  We need leaders to focus on those that can make us great, and forget those that hold us back.  Leaders who can funnel our shared resources to those that know how to make money and pay less taxes.  Laws that protect profit rather than the sick and old.  Policies that throw the flora and fauna of our planet under the bus so that we can have more shopping malls.  Regulations that allow more digging in the earth and more smokestacks to belch so that we can have cheap energy to get us to those malls.  Decision makers that can look past the hardships of the few and make sure that those with the most continue to see green lights ahead so we can return America to its rightful place on the world stage. 

Certainly Ayn Rand would be happy.