Last night PBS aired their election special Frontline : The Choice - where they trace the political history of the candidates that are running for president.

Watching the program is one of my favorite things to do before a major election and I really liked the program they put together for Bush and Kerry in 2004 but last night’s show was somewhat disappointing to me.    They seemed to give equal time to the candidates (which is good) but the problem is that McCain has almost 25+ years of experience compared to Obama, meaning that we got a pretty detailed account of Obama last night and a more general look at McCain.   In the years between his Senate victory and his presidential bid all we learned about was the Keating experience and more statements that McCain was a meverick.

Even with that though I did learn quite a bit that I found interesting.   For example McCain really used his celebrity status as a former POW and second wife’s connections to get his Senate seat, while Obama spent years preparing for politics (working on the street, law school, running for Congress and failing).   During Obama’s unsuccessful Congress run in 2000, Bill Clinton endorsed the candidate that was running against Obama.   Also, Obama actually has a very steady record or reaching across party lines - when he was President of the Harvard Law Review, he actually gave key positions to the more conservative law review members verses the more progressive (I wish he would talk about this when McCain talks about reaching across the aisle).

If you missed it last night here are links to the entire program which is available online - you should really watch!

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/choice2008/view/1.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/choice2008/view/2.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/choice2008/view/3.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/choice2008/view/4.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/choice2008/view/5.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/choice2008/view/6.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/choice2008/view/7.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/choice2008/view/8.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/choice2008/view/9.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/choice2008/view/10.html

takepart to talk about the program and to also see more interviews.

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