This nation is in a challenging time.

Answers are harder to come by.

-Senators and Congressmen are scared and confused.
-The President is a lame duck on his way to retirement.
-The financial infrastructure of this nation has a fluid and often
incapable foundation, particularly in the capital markets.
-The wealth balance has shifted out of the USA, enabling poorly
run and often violence-oriented regimes to gain undue and unanticipated influence in global politics.
-Energy resources have been artificially sequestered or bid up due to a growing, global economy.
-Americans refuse to 'play ball' and turn to the entitlement mindset, like unions, pensions, government assistance and the like, while the rest of the world is catching up in the areas we used to excel in:  hard work, energy, effort, smarts, creativity and imagination.
-We have become too comfortable with debt and its corrupting effects.

In a time when the answers are unclear, the questions are broad, comprehensive, complex and offer few good alternatives as viable solutions, the two things most important in any individual's arsenal is experience and courage.  Experience to rely on when facing similar situations with known outcomes, risks and rewards.  Courage to make difficult decisions with sufficient deliberation but decisive action.

Experience and courage serve individuals well.  Idealism and change for change's sake can help when some things aren't going right.  I think there is a place for both perspectives and strategies, however, the problems we are facing are mounting, they are very, very, very (existentially) serious, and there is little time and little leeway for the right answer to be found and the right course of action to be pursued.

While both gentlemen are intelligent, thoughtful and respectful individuals, who believe in their hearts and minds they have the right answers for a country they love and appreciate, there is more credibility and more trust that naturally flows to the candidate that can express and demonstrate experience and courage.  I think the public would be perfectly comfortable with Barack Obama if the nation was sailing on calm seas (a la the Clinton Years, where the turbulence was just below the surface), but in this situation, at this time and juncture in American history, there is a distinct need for decisiveness, courage, experience, and a willingness and tendency to do what is necessary and right, vs. what is expedient and generally accepted.

While I agree that consensus and compromise are important, they aren't that important at a time like this.  Credit markets must be restored to some level of liquidity and stability.  Homeowners and potential homeowners can NOT be turned off by the prospect of tough loan criteria and slim inventory, homeownership is one of the foundations of a peaceful and successful state.  Depositors (that's most of us) can't be fearful or spontaneous with their cash positions, and that requires strengthening the image and true reliability of the banking system.  Foreign relations must be cultivated that make sense.  Foreign policy requires knowing when your friend's become an enemy and when your enemy can be become a useful ally.  So much is at stake at one single point in time, that America cannot afford a series of minor missteps or one or two major ones.  The execution has to be near flawless, and the country has to be behind the leadership 100%.

While many will view President Bush with scorn and indignation, for a series of major and minor mistakes and sometimes sheer bullheadedness, and many will view Barack Obama as a peaceful, calm and fresh voice and consolidator, the truth is, each of these men have fatal flaws that have or will doom their presidencies.  Bush's was a structural defect in decision-making.  Obama's is a structural defect in decision-making.  One was stubborn, callous, unilateral and unrelenting.  The other is flexible, noncommital, multilateral and excessively compromising.  Neither have or will do the nation more good than harm.  It is my opinion that the United States needs a shake-up from the root to the treetop, a leader who will force each individual to examine just what they feel about their country, about themselves and their neighbors, about the future generations of this country, and what each individual is willing to do to move this country forward. 

This is truly a time when we have to ask ourselves "What Can I Do For My Country".  It's not about tax breaks, not about healthcare, not about what can I get out of this deal...that type of thinking got us into this rut.  This is the moment in time where America, like in the days after December 7, 1941, must grow up, and grow up quickly, to survive the sure calamity that is ahead if our next leader doesn't resolve our energy, financial and foreign/military policy flaws in short order.  This is not the moment where pollyanna visions of a carbon-neutral existence in peaceful symmetry with our secular, hedonistic neighbors in Old Europe take precedence. 

This is a time where America must DISTINGUISH itself, not morph itself into the politically correct America-basher of the week (Canada, France, Germany, Venezuela, etc.).  For that distinction to be clear, we must fortify our financial and military position.  We must cut off all use of petroleum imports within the next 20 years.  We must cut off all ties to nations who are not in line with America's values and traditions of democracy, freedom and core moral insights.  We must not fund regimes that do not stand up for what we do.  We must not aid organizations or nations who do not stand up for America in a time of need and crisis.  We must not fall prey to stretching our resources so thin that we begin to tear at the fabric that makes ours the greatest nation in the history of mankind.  We should not apologize for being American.  It is an honor.  We should not take for granted our wealth, our comforts, our safety, our freedom.  We should rather fight vigorously and to the end, to make sure OUR way of life is not altered or compromised, by internal or external factions.

In short, we must elect a leader who cares more for us, than for himself.  And the short answer to who is the better presidential candidate in this election is JOHN McCAIN.