Using reason

Because in the last few years the debate on the war has been so filled with political spin, many intelligent people accept the conventional wisdom in the media as if it's fact. Intelligent people should never fall victim to "perception is reality" -- intelligent people should be able to hold onto reason and rational thought in the midst of political spin.

Just about everyone who discusses Iraq now accepts that "there were no weapons of mass destruction". Yet, we really have no idea whether they were moved to Syria, buried in the desert, or what. Just questioning the acceptance of the spin makes you a whack-job, but we really don't know. All the inspection stalling and violations are wiped from memory.

When Obama says conclusively that going into Iraq was a mistake, pundits give him credit for winning that point, yet not enough time has passed to know if it was a mistake or part of a comprehensive strategy that stopped terrorist attacks on the US. So to say Obama had foresight voting against the war is premature and it may turn out he was wrong and voted according to a liberal view which had no foresight at all. Time will tell if Iraq was the location which provided the most leverage against terrorism, or not. Plus, you never hear about all the Democrats who voted for the war, including his running mate, as being wrong -- the perception is pushed that McCain and Bush started the war. Democrat support and sabre-rattling are wiped from memory, except for a brief revival against Hillary.

When Obama accuses McCain of pandering to the rich with tax cuts that relieve the burden on small and large businesses, he is said to have counter-punched because it's automatically accepted that lower taxes for businesses is pandering to the rich, but time and circumstances may reveal that increasing taxes on businesses has harmful effects on employment and prices for goods and services and that by lowering taxes the economy is fueled to improve the living standard of the middle class, and that 401K plans are enriched. And if it is true, as Obama stated, that the rich find looholes to avoid paying taxes, then how is it statistics show the top few percent of money earners paying most of the taxes? John Kennedy is the model for tax cuts, but that must be wiped from memory.

Too many people have accepted the premises of the media and Democrat Party. Too many people have lost the ability to think freely and withhold judgement until all the facts are gathered and assessed.

I'm not saying McCain is right and Obama is wrong, but I am saying that we don't have enough facts to know many of the things we assume have been decided. In order to make the best decision to determine who should run the country,  principles are one way to make a decision in the absence of time and results -- and reason -- but not perception built on shaky premises.