A few months ago I wrote about my thoughts on the Presidential candidates while Hillary Clinton was still in the race. Now that we have Barack Obama and John McCain as the nominees though I thought I would update my post a bit. As a reminder I consider myself both fiscally and socially conservative so I freely admit to leaning toward McCain however I do my best to try and look at the individual strengths and weaknesses of the candidates.

John McCain

Strengths

• Ability to work across the aisle - Unlike some of my conservative friends I believe this is an important characteristic to have as the President. We need the ability to put aside partisan differences in order to solve some of the major issues our country faces.
• Military service - Not everyone will agree with me here, but I feel that it is beneficial for the President to have served in the military so that he/she really understands the cost of putting our troops in harms way.
• Not beholden to the party - McCain has been a maverick his entire career. In my opinion the President needs to put the party platform aside as needed and lead the country based on his own ideals. This is one area where I respected Bill Clinton as the President. He knew when the Republicans had a good idea, and he supported it. I believe McCain would do the same things with Democrat proposals.

Weaknesses

• Health - I suspect some people reading this will relate it purely to McCain's age. Actually the part that concerns me more has to do with the treatment that McCain received while a POW. He has given a lot of service to his country, but that service took an awful toll on his body. I am concerned how the pressure of 4 or 8 years as the President will wear on him.
• Temper - It is pretty widely acknowledged that McCain has a pretty hot temper. While this is characteristic that many people share, it is one, that in my mind is dangerous for the President of the United States to have. Even when action is taken against our country such as 9/11 it is important that the President can remain cool in the crisis and help lead us out of it. I am not sure McCain can do that.

Barack Obama

Strengths

• Great communicator - Obama has the ability to connect with people. Since we face a time of crisis in our country this is an important ability to have. Ronald Reagan, and John F. Kennedy had the same charisma and communication ability. I think this is important as the President has to talk to the American people regularly about important topics.
• Message - Some will see this the same as being a great communicator, but in my mind the message Obama is delivering is as important as the way he delivers it. Like many people I am tired of the way Washington D.C. runs and would like to see a fresh point of view brought in. This is where Obama's message of change appeals to me.

Weaknesses

• Lack of leadership experience - I'm not trying to claim Obama would be a bad President. The fact is that his experience is limited though, and it bugs me how this has been treated by the media. The fact is that this could be good or bad depending on what you think of the direction of our country and Washington D.C. specifically. For me I want a President who has a number of years of experience working with all three branches of government since this is an important function of the President.
• Courage of convictions - As I've followed the campaign it seems that Obama has changed his messages a few times. When one is seeking the presidency, over many months, there are going to be occasional times when the message requires fine tuning, changing, whatever, but it seems like Obama has to clarify his messages on a regular basis. It really makes me wonder exactly what it is he believes in.
• Judgement - I really question how the choice of Joe Biden benefits Obama. If Mr. Obama was not trying to run the message of change Biden would of been a fine choice, but when you are trying to change how Washington D.C. works it seems like a poor pick in my opinion. I would of liked Obama to pick a Senator or Governor who had experience, but was more willing to question the establishment. I would of liked to see someone like Joe Lieberman get chosen. That would of shown a more consistent message of change.

Conclusion

I tried not to list a strength of one candidate as a weakness of the other. This was intentional as it is not a scale where the inexperience of Obama is balanced out by McCain's term in the Senate. I tried to look at each candidate individually and think about what I thought the plusses and minuses are.  I also did not try and give each candidate a certain number of strengths and weaknesses in order to support McCain. I thought about each candidate and tried to quickly list the areas I thought helped and hurt them.

I guess that since the NFL season began tonight I should get my annual prediction about the Seahawks record published so I can look back and see how wrong I was at the end of the year.

If I am right the Hawks will go 11-5 and win the NFC West once again. At home they will go 7-1 with their only home loss coming to the New England Patriots. On the road they will go 4-4 losing to the Giants, Buccaneers, Cowboys, and Cardinals. Hopefully if I am wrong it is in the losses column, and not with the predicted wins. Truthfully I expect that 11-5 or 10-6 is about how good they are this year.

I was listening to KJR-AM Sports Radio the other day. There was a discussion about what it means to be a true fan. Basically the question was if you are a true fan if you stop going to games when the team is bad. Being a Seattle sports fan  have seen my fair share of bad teams recently: Seattle Mariners, Washington Huskies, former Seattle Supersonics. There were a number of people making the case that you need to go to games no matter how bad the team is, or they might move, as the Sonics did.

I consider myself a true fan. I really do and I enjoy going to games, but I can't bring myself to spend money to attend games when the team sucks, especially if it has been a few (or more) years since they were good. When the Mariners were good back in 2001 I attended 9 games during the season, not a lot but I had a very young family. This year when the Mariners are truly awful I have gone to 1 game. To some people I guess this makes me a bandwagon fan.

Arguing that I'm a bandwagon fan though is ridiculous for a few reasons. Here are my thoughts on why you shouldn't go to games when the team is bad:

1. If you keep spending your money to attend games when your team sucks then what incentive does the owner have to improve the team? None! He or she will only care that you are continuing to pay without the team making a commitment to winning.
2. In what other endeavor do people pay over and over for a substandard product? If a band makes a lousy CD it is likely that their tour will generate a lot less revenue. Movie stars who appear in bad movies find themselves insignificant or unemployed pretty quickly.
3. Sports are not charities. I don't go to a game because I feel bad for the players. They are making millions of dollars or at least getting a free education to console themselves with when they are on a substandard team.

Even though I don't attend games when the team is bad I do continue to support them. I want to see them do well, and I hope that the players find a way to turn things around. I continue wearing the team apparel since that is a sunk cost anyway. The team does have to start winning before I will go back to the games though. Ultimately I feel like my money goes towards being entertained so I need to be getting my moneys worth. If that makes me a bandwagon fan then I guess that's what I am. In any case I really want to see the Huskies and Mariners improve and start winning again. As for the OKC Thunder (formerly the Sonics) I hope they continue to suck for all time. At least I'm not bitter...:-)