John McCain was brilliant in selecting Sarah Palin as his running mate. The bold move sparked new interest in his dying campaign. Then his own campaign threw water into the kindling, dousing the tiny flame. John McCain's campaign threw Sarah Palin into the Couric den. She barely made it out of there with some scratches. Not satisfied they threw her back in there again for a second time. Then president George W. Bush, listening to his secretary Paulson issued his dire statement, "We must act now or else catastrophic consquences will happen to our fragile economy. . ." (and I paraphrase). John McCain's knee jerk reaction: "Stop the campaign. I must go to Washington to bail this country out!" Great concern but wrong response. The financial snowball that president Bush threw became a huge snowball rolling straight downhill on John McCain's campaign bowling lane. Strike! not a pin was left standing.

Listening to the post-election Republican analyst's take on what happened, I agree that while Senator McCain's life story was compelling and a good story at that - it did not resonate with this day's voting crowd. What resonated was the mantra of Barack Hussein Obama: "Hope and Change," "Change and Hope," "Change, Change, Change". I didn't, wouldn't, and couldn't vote for Obama. Why would I vote for an empty suit? I remained deaf to his platitudinous orations - in fact, after a while Obama's purported "speaking eloquence" sounded like TV raster white noise.

Now that John McCain has lost the election, now that the Democrats have total control of government, I worry. I feel less secure. With Obama, Reid, and Pelosi at the helm our ship of state drifts. . . listing to port.