In North Carolina and Not Blogging

Hi Friends,

I am in Asheville with my son Elijah and his wife Rhonda. So the Blog world of Phil is quiet. What I have done is work on their home, go white water rafting on the French Broad River, eat, and I did listen to McCain and Obama talk to Rick Warren. It did give me a different view of the two men.

Up to this point I have not been a fan of either candidate, and am still leaning toward writing Ben Stein in for President, but this did make me think about these other guys running.

After seeing the two in action, and not being a fan of either candidate I think that if I was an Obama fan I would have been disappointed. I have seen him perform far better, and he did not come across as comfortable, nor as a decisive leader. His communication skills which are formidable were weaker than usual in this forum.

I would have been excited if I was a McCain fan. He spoke more eloquently, and less stilted. He was decisive in his answers, and showed some serious knowledge of both foreign and home affairs. He did come across as doing a stump speech a little too often by addressing the crowd as opposed to addressing Pastor Warren, and this would clearly be a put off for some people, but he also came across as far more personal and friendly than he does on most settings.

All in all I appreciated this look into the men running for President.

Headed home soon - perhaps a bit too soon - like tomorrow. Bev is concerned because after we had to put one of our greyhounds (Forrest) to sleep a little over a week ago, our other greyhound is at home keeping people awake at night. She has started howling when people are not around, and Bev is feeling quite bad for her. Holly and Forrest had been together as greyhound friends for at least 7 years of their post racing lives.