Politics as usual? Ugh

Last week, I raised questions about whether Barack Obama had the judgment to be president after seeing that he had been duped by his pastor for 20 years.

But the truth is that Obama is not the only top candidate for president who we should be worried about. The last 10 days should have been an eye-opener for anyone out there who has been laboring under the misapprehension that our top candidates are actually the best-qualified people to run this country.

Obama's total befuddlement over the fact that his pastor and friend, Jeremiah Wright, is a racist and anti-Semite was the most prominent political story of the last two weeks, but it was by no means the only one that should scare you.

Obama's Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton was also skewered publicly by her own overactive imagination. You all know the story by now. Sen. Clinton has been regaling audiences with the tale of her dangerous arrival in Bosnia under sniper fire in 1996 as part of her sales package for her foreign policy "experience" as first lady.

"I remember landing under sniper fire," she told a political gathering recently. "There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base."

In fact, as we all know now thanks to the archival footage, she arrived at Tuzla military air base with a smile and her 15-year-old daughter Chelsea and no one was running for cover. Instead she was greeted by children and other well-wishers. In fact, it was so evident that Clinton had misspoken, she did what no politician ever does - she admitted she was wrong!

But the questions raised about her character and fitness to be president are just as serious as those raised about Obama. She claims she is prepared to make serious, world-changing decisions when the phone rings at three in the morning, but then she claimed she was just "sleep-deprived" when she made the misstatements about Bosnia.

But hold on! This wasn't an isolated case. She had made similar claims before the Iowa caucus and on other occasions. But comedian Sinbad, who was with Clinton on that trip along with musician Sheryl Crow, blew her cover earlier this month when he joked about Clinton's statement that, "We used to say in the White House that if a place is too dangerous, too small or too poor, send the First Lady."

Sinbad said Clinton didn't have any credibility and joked to The Sleuth blog on the Washington Post, "What kind of president would say, 'Hey, man, I can't go 'cause I might get shot so I'm going to send my wife… oh, and take a guitar player and a comedian with you.'"

In any other political year, being proven to have completely fabricated a life-threatening experience would be disqualifying for a presidential candidate. This year, it's just one more lah-dee-dah moment, as the electorate sleepwalks toward judgment day on Nov. 4.

I'm not a psychiatrist, but telling lies when you don't need to is one of the defining characteristics of a sociopath, isn't it? Or maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it's just a defining characteristic of being a Clinton. In either case, does anyone really want to vote for this woman?

But if you can't vote for either Obama or Clinton, you are just left with John McCain, right?

Not so fast.

McCain had his own foreign policy blunder last week, and it was a doozy, all caught on videotape. While in Jordan, he made a statement on the Iraq war's insurgency that was flat-out wrong and should raise serious questions about his "attention to detail."

McCain told reporters that al-Qaida operatives were receiving training in Iran and then being sent back into Iraq to do battle against U.S. led forces. Now this is certainly possible (in the same sense that an asteroid hitting the Earth while you are reading this column is possible) but it is highly unlikely considering that al-Qaida is a Sunni Muslim operation and Iran has a Shiite Muslim regime, and Sunnis and Shiites hate each other slightly more than Boston Red Sox fans hate the Yankees.

Yet there was the man who would be president saying it just as if it was true. And then came the truly embarrassing moment - the TV hook - when a gaffe went from dopey to dangerous.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, playing the role of Nancy Reagan to McCain's "Ronnie," leaned over and whispered into McCain's ear what sounds like: "You said the Iranians are training al-Qaida; they are training extremists"

That prompted McCain to correct himself: "I'm sorry. The Iranians are training extremists. Not al-Qaida."

I suppose if we were sure that Joe Lieberman was going to be appointed as McCain's secretary of state, this episode might have some positive value to show that McCain's handlers could keep him out of trouble, but the fact is we just have plain old McCain on the ballot, and what we seem to have is a senator who is plainly confused about the facts.

Nor can the matter be glossed over as simply a momentary gaffe such as any of us can make. The fact is that the day before, McCain had made the same assertion on the "Hugh Hewitt Show," saying: "As you know, there are al-Qaida operatives that are taken back into Iran, given training as leaders, and they're moving back into Iraq. I think Americans should be very angry when we know that Iran is exporting weapons into Iraq that kill Americans."

As for me, I think Americans should be angry that we are now stuck with three candidates for president who have all proven themselves to be less than ideal candidates. Is this really the best we can do?

. Frank Miele is managing editor of the Daily Inter Lake and writes a weekly column. E-mail responses may be sent to edit@dailyinterlake.com