I know there are a lot of people here of every variety of belief or none and have no desire to minimize that. I noticed, however, a feature in the speech that was distinctly Mormon, though I think it rings true to people in a variety of faith traditions or simply a belief in standing up for the good as we see it.

Here is the paragraph I was thinking of:

"Americans love God, and those who don't have faith, typically believe in something greater than themselves – a 'Purpose Driven Life.' And we sacrifice everything we have, even our lives, for our families, our freedoms and our country. The values and beliefs of the free American people are the source of our nation's strength and they always will be."

What it reminded me of was a story from the Book of Mormon of a people who were up against a dangerous and threatening foe and were ready to fall back and retreat, giving up on the things that they most valued in order to, possibly, save their own lives.

Their leader (Moroni) took the following approach, the opposing force is called the Lamanites and were fighting a war of conquest similar to the efforts to create a caliphate in today's world:

  48 "And it came to pass that when the men of Moroni saw the fierceness and the anger of the Lamanites, they were about to shrink and flee from them. And Moroni, perceiving their intent, sent forth and inspired their hearts with these thoughts—yea, the thoughts of their lands, their liberty, yea, their freedom from bondage.
  49 And it came to pass that they turned upon the Lamanites, and they cried with one voice bunto the Lord their God, for their cliberty and their freedom from bondage.
  50 And they abegan to stand against the Lamanites with power; and in that selfsame hour that they cried unto the Lord for their freedom, the Lamanites began to flee before them; and they fled even to the waters of Sidon."

This is as I'm sure you'll all realize, from the book which, arguably, both killed his candidacy and gave it a reason to live in the first place--that is to serve his fellow men and present himself in a time of need to defend the values of faith, family, and country that both his familial and religious heritage embrace. As also to give time, talent, and means to the extent appropriate to build a better world.

Perhaps we will see him again in 2012, that would be wonderful, but whatever may be his future decisions with regards to politics, I hope he'll continue to set an example of service as his father did before him. He aspired, and though he achieved not, I think he can be satisfied in what he accomplished.

This has been an interesting year. McCain definately seems to be ahead, but if I recall, just about everyone's been ahead at one time or another, so I'm not prepared to call it until one of the candidates has a clear supermajority. I do think that WV deal between Huckabee and McCain is a cause for serious concern, the reason being: aren't we voting for a presidential nominee? Let me be a bit more clear here. It isn't a problem if McCain wins and picks some random Republican as his running mate, because then we just have the old "enemy of enemy=friend thinking", which is kosher for this kind of event. It also isn't a problem if Huckabee wins (though this appears extremely unlikely at this point), and picks some random Republican. But if McCain picks Huckabee as his VP, which has been looking, we'll say, less and less unlikely, then it will look like a fairly textbook case of conspiracy. Now some people will say all's fair in politics, and I'm all for the no crying, no whining, no blood no foul kind of game. I don't mind harsh criticism of candidates based on their records, statements, and all, provided of course that what is being said is true and is given enough context not to be deceptive. However, when you have two candidates conspiring, claiming to run separately but in fact coordinating with the plan to unite their totals at the end, then it allows for a kind of microsegmentation of the population that is difficult to run against, however qualified a candidate may be. For that reason, I think if McCain wants to win this thing Huckabee had better not be his running mate or a lot of conservative Republicans may call foul and decide they've been used enough for one year.

Additionally, if McCain does manage to get the nomination (still hoping this doesn't happen) it will be very important who h chooses as his running mate. He has reminded us repeatedly that his mother is still alive and kicking, but whether his longevity will more closely resemble his mother or his father remains to be seen. Anyway, his VP will probably get a lot more scrutiny than either a hypothetical Clinton or Obama's running mate would.