{"id":2727,"date":"2008-10-08T09:15:00","date_gmt":"2008-10-08T09:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2008\/10\/those-pandering-mannequins.html"},"modified":"2008-10-08T09:15:00","modified_gmt":"2008-10-08T09:15:00","slug":"those-pandering-mannequins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/10\/those-pandering-mannequins.html","title":{"rendered":"“Those pandering mannequins”"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>This item<\/a> in the Wall Street Journal — describing how a lot of voters are still undecided — reminded me of some conversations I’ve had recently with observant, faithful Catholics. <\/p>\n

These are people from different parts of the country, with different backgrounds and economic circumstances. But on three different occasions, three different people told me essentially the same thing: the choices this year are so uniformly awful, they’re seriously thinking of sitting out this election. <\/p>\n

I know the feeling. Especially after last night’s debate. <\/p>\n

I’m wondering if there are others out there wrestling with this, too. Whatever your political persuasion, you can’t escape the maddening feeling: is this<\/i> the best we could do? What kind of choice is this? <\/p>\n

Then, lo and behold, Rod Dreher<\/a> chimed in last night with the same sentiment: <\/p>\n

I cannot believe that this country is in the critical condition that it’s in, and these are the politicians we’re asked to choose from as our next leader. Neither McCain nor Obama spoke with any credibility or seriousness about our situation. When asked what sacrifices they would ask the American people to make in light of the crisis and its likely fallout, they punted. It made me so angry! I have no use for either of those pandering mannequins.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In other debate-related news, you can see who was right, who was wrong, who exaggerated, and who told the biggest whoppers over at FactCheck.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This item in the Wall Street Journal — describing how a lot of voters are still undecided — reminded me of some conversations I’ve had recently with observant, faithful Catholics. These are people from different parts of the country, with different backgrounds and economic circumstances. 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Prior to that, Deacon Greg worked for 26 years as a writer and producer for CBS News, where he contributed to \"The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric,\" \"60 Minutes II,\" \"48 Hours,\" (Emmy Award, Writers Guild of America Award) and \"Sunday Morning.\" He was co-writer for the acclaimed documentary \"9\/11,\" hosted by Robert DeNiro. (Emmy Award, Christopher Award, Peabody Award, Writers Guild of America Award.) His radio essays were featured in the bestselling book \"Deadlines and Datelines\" by Dan Rather. He's also a two-time winner of the Catholic Press Association Award. Other places you may find him: AMERICA, U.S. CATHOLIC, CATHOLIC DIGEST, REALITY (Redemptorist Communications) and THE BROOKLYN TABLET. He also contributes homiletic reflections to the parish resource CONNECT!, published by Liturgical Publications. In November 2009, he began serving a three-year term as a consultant to the Communications Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Deacon Greg grew up in Maryland (Go Terps!) but he and his wife today live in the beautiful borough of Queens, New York. You can contact Deacon Greg at dcngreg@gmail.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/author\/gkandra"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2727\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}