"Gut Wrenching" Decisions

I guess my stated goal of paying no attention to the Presidential campaign until after Labour Day is working a bit too well. I completely missed any run-up to Saturday's first toe-to-toe meeting between the candidates, at an evangelical church - didn't even know it was happening. (Well, back to back interviews is a more accurate description.)

And of course, I was watching Michael Phelps win his 8th Olympic Gold Medal.

It's only this morning that I am finding out about what happened. Pastor Rick Warren (author of The Purpose Driven Life), of Saddleback Church in California, interviewed each presidential candidate, asking both the same questions; the broad topics were given to them in advance.

I haven't yet read the full transcript yet, but a lot of people are focusing on one question:


"What Is The Most Gut-Wrenching Decision You Ever Had To Make?"

"Wow," I thought, "that would be a tough question to answer." Even at my exalted age, I am having a hard time coming up with a gut-wrenching decision I HAD to make.

So I found it interesting how the candidates answered the question:

Obama answered that opposing the war in Iraq was “as tough a decision that I’ve had to make, not only because there were political consequences but also because Saddam Hussein was a bad person and there was no doubt he meant America ill."

Obama didn't have to make any such decision; he was a state senator at that time. He had nothing to gain or lose by opposing the war. This issue came up in the primaries when Clinton and Edwards (both U.S. Senators at the time) discussed the difficult choice each had to make when voting on the war, and each pointed out that Obama did not have to make that decision. But now it ranks as his most gut-wrenching decision ever.

Now consider John McCain. While he was being held a prisoner of war in Viet Nam, his captors became aware that McCain's father was a top Navy officer and they offered him early release.

“I was in rather bad physical shape,” McCain told Warren, but “we had a code of conduct that said you only leave by order of capture.” So McCain refused to go..... he added that, “in the spirit of full disclosure, I’m very happy I didn’t know the war was going to last for another three years or so.”

Real life, real decision, real personal consequences.

Barack Obama hasn't even had to decide whether to let his teen-aged daughter take the car. Talk about gut-wrenching.