Jets fans used to chant, "Joe must go!" Until he was sacked last week, disgruntled 49ers fans logged into www.fire-nolan.com to bash the team's beleaguered head coach, Mike Nolan. Every night all across the country, sports-radio talk shows take calls from fans who claim their team could return to greatness if only they could replace the dope at the top with someone with a new approach and fresh ideas. Media types, wanting to join the party, start to play on fans' emotions by being more confrontational in interviews and columnists wonder aloud whether the coach has "lost his team."

 

Sound familiar?

 

George W. Bush is being treated by many as the head coach who has taken a once-proud football team - in this case America - from world champion to cellar dweller in just a few years. The whole team seems to be underachieving based on the perceived talent level and voters (read: fans) want a change. Furthermore, they almost don't even care what kind of change they get as long as it's different.

 

So now they've been given two choices for the new head coach. Candidate One is a long-time assistant coach who knows the game like the back of his hand, but is part of the current coach's staff so is he really going to be that different? Besides, he seems a little over-the-hill and turning this team around is going to take long hours and a lot of energy. Candidate Two has never been a head coach at any level, but he's young and seems to have some great new ideas to get the team back on track. Granted he's never really tried any of these ideas on a real team before, but he's written a couple books about football and the media loves him. He's also a great motivational speaker and is sure to get this group fired up. Everyone knows that a winning attitude is just as important as the X's and O's.

 

Problem is, we're not talking about a football team. It's not as simple as firing the next coach if he fails to live up to the hype. If this inexperienced guy fails, the damage may be permanent. How do you rollback trillions of dollars in new entitlements once they're established? How can you ever get back money taken from society's achievers and given to its laggards in the name of justice? Perhaps most importantly, how do you deal with a judiciary that's been skewed so far to the left that they think empathy with litigants is the highest virtue in jurisprudence? It might be impossible and, if it isn't, it would take a generation or more to repair. We haven't got that kind of time.

 

Barack Obama isn't a bad person, he's just wrong. John McCain, flawed as he is, knows his stuff. He's been in the trenches and through the wars, literally. He'll play the game right because he's actually been on the inside and knows what works and - most importantly - what doesn't. And any mistakes he makes are much more likely to be reversable than Obama's because McCain's natural tendency is to keep power outside Washington and in the hands of citizens.

 

America is not a football team, its a country. Voters need to stop looking at this election as fans and start looking at it as citizens. Right now it's almost like they're saying, "We want someone new and the next guy can't possibly be any worse than Bush." Some of us know better.

Growing up in the 70's, I spent many the afternoon watching reruns of old sitcoms on TV. One of my favorites was "The Brady Bunch," and I readily admit to still catching the occasional episode or two if I stumble upon the Brady clan while flipping through the channels. But I never thought a 25 year-old TV show would help crystallize what I've been trying to get my head around for about six months. Namely: Why would the Democratic Party nominate an admittedly bright, attractive man for president who is almost completely devoid of actual qualifications for the job?

 

Let me take you back to the Brady Bunch episode where Greg is a budding musician looking to score a record deal that will lead to fame and fortune. Through happenstance he catches the eye of a slick Hollywood type - all the way down to the blue sunglasses - who promises to make all his dreams come true. Greg, with stars in his eyes and believing he's "all that," goes down to their studio and cuts a demo tape. While waiting for the recording to be ready for playback, we cut to the producer's office where Greg's told he'll be a star and is shown kind of a sequined matador outfit that will help create the image of "Johnny Bravo," his new stage name. Greg's not sure what to say at first, but he agrees because he so wants to be famous.

 

When the producer's assistant arrives with the demo tape, Greg's decided to go along with the chirade because it will still allow him to realize his musical dreams, albeit under a pseudonym. Then they play the tape and Greg learns that his singing has been electronically altered to create what his handlers think is the right sound. He asks the producers why they wanted him if they didn't really like his voice and they answer simply, "Because you fit the suit."

 

For the Dems, Barack Obama fits the suit and for a while it looked like that was enough. Problem is, now that he's in an actual fight for the presidency, people are starting to realize that there's not much inside that suit. No business experience, no management experience, no track record of good judgment, just lots of platitudes and the "right" look.

 

Obama still sings a good song and might yet have enough star power to pull this off, but I fear that if that happens America will suddenly wake up to find that an image can't run a country.