Your post prompted me to make a quick, cursory survey of our last several presidents over at Wikipedia. Starting with Dwight Eisenhower, we were led by a string of presidents who had some sort of service in the World War II era (except for Carter, who did his time in the Navy in the early 1950s). Reagan did as much as he could during that time (apparently his eyesight excluded him from active combat), and George H.W. Bush was shot down during a bombing run on one of the Pacific islands.

George H.W. Bush was our last “World War II President.” He lost to Bill Clinton, our first “Baby Boomer” president, who never served a day in the military, despite being eligible during the Vietnam War.

In 1996, Clinton (Vietnam) defeated Bob Dole, a World War II veteran, and most likely the last WWII-era American we’ll ever see as a presidential candidate.

Clinton was followed by our current president (Vietnam-era National Guard); George W. Bush first defeated Al Gore (Vietnam veteran), and then John Kerry (Vietnam veteran).

Now… we have a rather aged Vietnam veteran in John McCain… against Barack Obama, who was only 13 or 14 during the Fall of Saigon in 1975.

Might we be in for another “changing of the guard,” so to speak?

Agnostick
agnostick@excite.com
http://marciaford.blogspot.com
http://www.bipartisanbridge.org

I have high hopes (hur hope) for Obama, but I won’t go running to Canada if McCain takes the West Wing. I must admit Palin disturbs me, and if it were her name on the top of the ticket, I’d probably not be quite so centrist on this.

I’ll be honest, I lean toward Obama right now. I guess my leaning toward Obama is because I think he’s exhibited more pragmatism and common sense lately than McCain has. There’s also a generational factor. Let me explain… I was born a decade after the Vietnam War ended, but I feel like almost every election in the subsequent two decades after my birth has been, to an unnecessarily large degree, about Vietnam. Whether it’s draft-dodging or swift-boating or the POW card – - I’m sick of it. Time to move on. Yes, it’s great that John McCain was in POW camp, but if that’s going to be a major part of his argument on why he should be president, then Obama can count on my vote. Elections should be about the future, and the Republicans seem tied up in a depressing state of nostalgia for the Reagan era right now… It’s for the same reason why I wasn’t too hot on the idea of Hillary Clinton as president or veep (I’ve never seen a presidential administration without a Clinton or Bush as president or veep… so at least I’m happy to know we’ll be moving beyond that).

But despite my lack of enthusiasm for McCain right now, I won’t be disappointed if he wins. I’ve got an enormous amount of respect for him. And with an inevitable increase of the Democratic majority in Congress, I doubt that he’s going to be implementing a particularly out-of-the-mainstream conservative agenda.

Anyway… those are my thoughts.

“That’s what they do- they’re sellin us a grand vission of the future- ‘If you vote for me” – BenG

Ben – I think you are being a little rough on Obama and Biden with this comment, but you are entitled to your opinion. I am curious though – did you see Sarah Palin’s speech last night?

Well i’m sure you can guess the end of this story. Ever try to get out of a lease prematurely? Yea, it wasn’t his wife’s car that was leased! So I’m also sure by now u guess the point here, too. That’s what they do- they’re sellin us a grand vission of the future- ‘If you vote for me”.

So did she tell you what she’s gonna do for ya -as if… Or did she just tell you what the other guys aren’t – or what the other guys are promising but won’t deliver. And we all run around like fools, not caring bout anything xcept which credit card we’ll use for this one!