John McCain campaigned hard and for the most part honorably. Had he been elected, he might have made a good president. We’ll never know.
Obama campaigned hard and well, and for all we know may make a good president. It’s possible. We’ll find out.
But this campaign, which scored so many firsts, was also an unnnoticed first of a sadly different type. I believe it was the first time voters had to choose between two sitting (while running) senators. And that is not a good thing.
The US Senate reminds me of a childhood game called in which players try to gobble up marbles with mechanical hippo jaws. In the Senate the game is Hungry Hungry Egos.
The US Senate was conceived by the Founders as a sober body of elder statesmen removed and largely retired from politics; a House of Lords for a democracy. Instead it has become not only a part of our partisan battlefield, but also a luxury kennel for the care and feeding of our tenderest egos.
I suspect that Sarah Palin’s most egregious sin was not her attempt to break into the vice presidency, but her lack of respect for the senatorial club.
If someone out there wants to propose an amendment to the US Constitution disqualifying sitting senators from the presidency, they’ve got my vote.
