Let's fight over things that matter

Somewhere between hot chicks digging Obama and the search for all of McCain's houses, it hit me. My dream for 2008 is dying.

A campaign that began with as much promise as any instead has veered into the inane.

Two years ago, when Barack Obama came to Seattle's Benaroya Hall, he talked of how "negativity is the easy path." It's dreaming that takes courage. The next day I wrote this:

"My foolish dream is Obama vs. McCain in 2008. And that the two of them can somehow lift our desultory politics to a higher place."

Anyone feel we're in a higher place?

More like a puerile place. This summer our politics hasn't been all that brutal or nasty or hard-fought. What it has been is shallow.

Many of you probably blame the press for that. That's fair. But my hope was that these two unusual candidates, both from outside the party machines, would bring an unconventional flavor to the politics.

Instead they've fallen into the usual ruts.

Take Obama. He had a chance to set a new tone when McCain offered to join him in a traveling series of unmoderated, unscripted town-hall debates.

At its best it could have been Lincoln-Douglas revisited, full of policy and personality. At the least it would have been a chance to get to know these guys.

Instead, Obama played it safe. He was ahead, so why give McCain the platform? Ever since, it's been back to a tired routine. Dueling tit-for-tats. Faux outrage. People tuning out.

By playing it safe, Obama lost his lead. The electric politician morphed into the boring establishment.

More than Obama, though, I fault John McCain. He calls himself "The Original Maverick," but there's nothing unique about his campaign. So far it's attack politics, pathbreaking only in how moronic it is.

I still can't quite believe he put out an ad saying "hot chicks dig Obama." Then he compared Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. Is McCain running for president of a country or a seventh-grade class?

More depressing still is that it worked.

Now, the race to the bottom is on. Last week Obama turned onto this low road, flogging McCain for owning too many houses.

Nothing brings the country together like class warfare!

Sure, at this point McCain deserves it. I'm not saying it's even that nasty. What's vexing is how juvenile it is.

On a day when the U.S. and Iraq essentially embraced Obama's timetable plan for getting our troops out of Iraq — maybe a vital issue to the country? — Obama was off setting up 16 events around the country to mock how rich McCain is. One was a contest to guess how many houses McCain owned, dubbed, "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: McCain Edition."

I now regret writing the following sentences in that foolish dream column of 2006:

"Both Obama and McCain seem willing to put the common good above partisan gain. To reach out to foes, both at home and abroad. To at least begin some honest talk about difficult choices."

How off that sounds now, mired as we are in this summer of silliness.

Starting today, political summer ends and the fall campaigns begin. I'm taking what's left of my foolish dream to the Democratic National Convention in Denver, which runs through Thursday. I'll write reports from there each day.

Then the following week I'll be at the Republican convention in St. Paul, Minn. Please contact me with questions, comments or specific stories you'd like me to address.

I hope in Denver we see the old game-changing Obama (remember his Philadelphia race speech?). I also want back the insurgent, anti-establishment Obama, who pledged to change the way Washington works and end Karl Rove wedge politics.

I hope the maverick McCain returns, too. The one who didn't pander so much. Who had the guts to call out his own party for accommodating "agents of intolerance." Who saw that uniting disparate people in compromise is the way to fix immigration or the legalized corruption of Washington.

I know, that's asking a lot. Too much.

So how about this: Forget the candidates being nice. Forget respectful debates, or high-minded common purpose. Politics is supposed to be a fight. So bring it on.

But my final foolish hope: Can we please fight about something that matters?

Danny Westneat's column appears Wednesday and Sunday. Reach him at 206-464-2086 or dwestneat@seattletimes.com.