There are ample reasons for Americans to vote for (or against) either of the two presumptive presidential nominees. Putting aside my ideological orientation, I can see why some believe Mr. Obama is either unprepared or too liberal to serve. Conversely, despite my suspicions about him, I can see why some think Mr. McCain would make a better commander in chief in a post-9/11 world. (I think there is a strong policy-oriented case to be made against a McCain presidency, however.)
Character matters, sure, because it reveals important information about how a candidate might confront an unanticipated issue or unexpected situation once in the White House. Still, it is not that difficult during the campaign season for political consultants worth their salt to construct biographical narratives about their clients that disguise certain personality flaws while magnifying or exaggerating their virtues.
Put another way, you don't always get what you voted for.
Remember "compassionate conservative" George W. Bush, the man who sold himself to the country in 2000 as a "uniter, not a divider" and a man with a humble, "no nation-building" foreign policy outlook? That mythic person disappeared so long ago that I keep expecting to see his image and vital statistics on the back of a milk carton.
Speaking of 2000, that year, the media depicted Mr. Bush to be a folksy, comfortable-in-his-skin Regular Joe and Al Gore as a mendacious, wooden know-it-all. Neither was an entirely accurate portrait.
Let's assume there was an element of truth to both depictions. Did the president's penchant for passing out goofy nicknames forecast how he would handle the issue of illegal immigration? Were we supposed to divine from Mr. Gore's dramatic kiss with wife Tipper at the 2000 Democratic convention how he might have dealt with al-Qaida?
It is time we stopped voting based on such superficial stupidities and reductive caricatures.
Thomas F. Schaller teaches political science at UMBC. His column appears regularly in The Sun. His e-mail is schaller67@ gmail.com.
