Plucking Out a Few Good Moments

The campaign is over, folks - mercifully. I would, however, like to give kudos to each candidate for a couple of good points that they made toward the end................................................On the Obama front, I felt he really put the whole Ayers thing in perspective when he noted that, yes, there were in fact Republicans on that educational board, too. In fact (and, yes, I believe that he pointed this out, too), wasn't the whole board itself started/financed by a Republican? Why the Obama campaign, in general (not to mention Obama's supporters in the media), didn't continuously hammer away at this point, I don't think that I'll ever know the answer to that. I mean, don't you think that it might have slowed down the vitriol a tad?....................................................McCain's good point near the end involved the program, Head Start. He said (during an overall discussion on spending) that, while, yes, Head Start is in many ways a noble program, its overall effectiveness has clearly been questioned by researchers. The gains (he goes on to say) that a lot of these children make are lost by the third grade (lack of parental involvement, bad schools, whatever the reason). Does it necessarily make sense (McCain's point continues) to throw more money at a program that isn't getting good results? Not really, right?....................................................And, yes, for McCain to have made THAT point (instead of pandering - something he had clearly been doing up to that point) at THAT juncture of the campaign - I think that that took some courage, frankly. It's kind of too bad he didn't show more of that candor on the campaign trail. He might have ended up doing better.