Taking responsibility

Time for a politics post.  I have kept these to a minimum recently because I get extremely worked up about it all and I know everyone doesn't agree with me.  Even though that shouldn't matter since it's my blog and I can write whatever I want!  But I've found that it is one of those topics that it is best to keep to myself for the most part.  I do a lot of assuming when it comes to who believes what and have gotten myself in a bit of trouble, or at least an uncomfortable conversation, a few times recently because of it.  Anyway.

John McCain has turned into a monster.  How's that for an inflammatory opening statement?  He used to be his own character, conductor of the straight talk express, someone who told it like it was and wasn't afraid to go against the grain of his own party to support something he felt strongly about.  But he seems to have lost sight of that over the past couple months while going head to head against Barack Obama in the presidential campaign.  The more I listen to him, the more turned off I am by his negative campaign tactics and smug attitude.  I think it's mostly a result of his campaign not having a whole lot of ideas or answers when it comes to what the nation needs, so they are reduced to attacking Obama on such trivial things as his "celebrity status" and patriotism.  Not that patriotism is a trivial topic, I just think there's no basis to attack Obama on his patriotism whatsoever.  Most recent case in point, from CNN.com:

McCain Camp Mocks Obama's Comment on Inflated Tires

In a nutshell, the McCain campaign took a minor comment in a talk Obama gave about his energy plan, that people should make sure their tires were properly inflated as it can make a difference in gas mileage, and they just ran with it like the village idiots.  They handed out tire pressure gauges with "Obama Energy Plan" on them to the press corps, implying that this was Obama's answer to the energy crisis.  Well this just infuriated me.  For one, THAT IS NOT HIS ENERGY PLAN.  Yes, he wants to decrease dependence on oil, foreign and domestic (offshore drilling).  In my mind, forcing innovation is not a bad thing.  People don't really look for alternatives unless they absolutely have to and I truly believe that expensive gas will force innovation into clean energy sources that will have long and far reaching benefits for us all.  Secondly, do they really think the American people are ignorant enough to fall for ridiculous statements like this and the Paris Hilton/Britney Spears commercial (which McCain defended and claimed to be proud of)?  Obama says inflate your tires and that'll solve the gas crisis.  He's a brainless, vapid celerbrity and nothing more.  If McCain would just put out some ads that talk about what HE stands for and what HIS plans are, instead of just attacking every other thing Obama says, maybe I could take him seriously.  As we all do, I respect his service to this country, both in the military and in the Senate.  But I have zero respect for the way he's run his campaign to date. 

The point I intended to make when I started this post, was so what if Obama suggested that people check their tire pressure?  That is a completely legitimate thing for people to do if they want to make sure they are maximizing their gas mileage!  It doesn't add up to much, my (new) tires were quite underinflated recently and it knocked my gas mileage down by about 2 miles per gallon, but it's still something.  I don't think it's unreasonable to ask Americans to take some responsibility and make sure they are doing everything they can for themselves instead of relying on the government to come to their rescue and bail them out for their irresponsible, entitled attitudes and behaviors.  Don't even get me started on the housing bailout...