Oh, Now You've Gone and Done it!!
All right. Here comes a long one, so buckle your seat belts. This is a post that will probably make a lot of people I know upset or confused with me (or at least it would if anybody actually read this thing). The final debate has been held, the situation in our Country is getting worse, and I've made my decision; I'm going to vote for Barack Obama.
What??? You live in Utah, in TAYLOR Utah, you go to Church every week, and you're going to vote for a DEMOCRAT?!? That's it, I don't know you. Me. Whatever.
Yes, I'm going to vote for Senator Obama. Now, obviously I'm exaggerating the reaction a bit, however around here, especially in the older community in which I live, it's not too far from the truth. So before you tie me to the proverbial stake and light me up, let me explain things for a bit.
First of all, I don't consider myself affiliated with either major party and I try to be as independent minded as possible. I know that's a cliche, but I really do try to focus on the issues at hand when I look at who I'm going to vote for. I can honestly say that I have been following this race more closely than anyone else I know. I saw every single one of the primary debates on both sides, have read hundreds of blogs, listened to hundreds of political podcasts this year, and I think Barack Obama is the person we need right here and now.
First, let's deal with the social issues right out of the gate. The first thing that anyone who opposes Obama is going to say to me is "Don't you know he is in favor of abortion and gay marriage?" Obviously, if social issues were the only thing I took into consideration when I voted, then of course I would vote for John McCain. If that were the case, I would never vote for a Democrat, period! However, I simply cannot be a one or two issue voter; there is simply too much at stake. I think abortion is a disgusting and immoral practice and I believe that marriage is the union between a man and a woman. But right now, I'm not too concerned that some gay guy is going to try to get me to marry him or that somebody is going to try and force Amy to have an abortion (she's not pregnant, fyi -- don't get excited). I am concerned that our economy is tanking, home values are falling, my 401k has lost almost half its value in the last few months, and that most of the rest of the World considers the USA to be the "Evil Empire" that the Soviet Union used to be. I honestly don't think the next President will even have time to deal with social issues.
About the only concern (and it is a valid concern) on that front is that the next President will likely select as many as three new justices for the Supreme Court. However, I'm really not worried about the effect an Obama Presidency would have on that situation either. All three of the justices that are most likely to retire in the next three years are left leaning (Stevens, Ginsburg and Souter). Obama would select three new left-leaning justices, so the balance of power wouldn't change from where it currently stands, almost equally divided between conservative and liberal justices. On the other hand, a McCain Presidency would be a good thing for conservatives because he would try to appoint conservative justices (should liberal justices decide to retire during a conservative presidency). If this was to happen, there is a good chance that Roe vs. Wade would be overturned. I think that would be great, but I don't know if it is realistic; the Senate has to confirm any presidential appointments to the Supreme Court, and since it appears that after November there will be around 60 Democrats in the Senate, there would almost surely be endless filibustering of any right-leaning candidates a President McCain would pick. In the end, he'd end up having to select a more independent-minded fence-sitter, and the hopes of overturning Roe v. Wade will be slim. So to sum it all up; as far as the Supreme Court goes, the odds are that an Obama Presidency would result in a continuation of the status quo and a McCain Presidency would, in a best case scenario, bring in a few more fencer-sitters.
My first real reason for voting for Obama is Leadership. The Country is in a tough situation right now, both at home and abroad. We really need somebody who can bring us all together, and to accomplish that we really need to have a President that is LIKED. Think about it -- President Bush is liked by very few people; by most the rest he is either tolerated, disliked, hated or completely despised. Seriously, many people talk about Hitler or Stalin in nicer terms than they do about our own President! How in the world do we expect to be able to get it together as a nation if everybody hates our leader?
Now, the media is to blame for a good portion of that hate. The media and Hollywood are so liberally biased that nearly every source for hearing about politics makes the Democrats look like white knights and the Republicans look like bloodthirsty trolls. So let's face it; media-influenced or not, most of the nation really likes Barack Obama. He's a very charismatic person and I honestly think he would be a very popular President. John McCain, on the other hand, has gone from being portrayed as the independent/maverick media-darling senator of 8 years ago to a crotchety, angry old man that would fit in really well here in Taylor. And we need a charismatic, decisive, popular President! We need somebody that will make Americans say "See that guy? That's OUR President!"
By the way, this is the very reason why I simply cannot stand Hillary Clinton. If she had won the Democratic Primary there would have been no decision for me. Her personality, politics and the airs she puts on are more divisive than even that of President Bush, and that is DEFINITELY not what this country needs!
The second issue is the Economy and Taxes. This issue was my biggest struggle in deciding who I would vote for. It's no secret that Democrats like to redistribute the wealth, and Republicans like to leave the system alone. McCain wants to leave taxes the way that they are and Obama wants to raise taxes for anybody making more than $250k per year and lower them for everybody else. Personally, Obama's plan is great for me, and it probably is for anybody who would actually read this as well. I don't make over $250k in a year, and I'm not sure I ever will. That's not the issue for me; the issue is that most businesses (including the company I work for) make more than 250k per year and will therefore be taxed more heavily. I do worry that those increased tax costs will trickle down to employees, so even though I will be paying a lower amount of taxes personally my company might take a hit.
But here's what helped me to make up my mind -- Barack Obama has a plan to use these increased taxes to create all kinds of public incentives and grants for infrastructure improvement, public works, education, and so on. This means more federal money and grants will be available to our local communities, giving such communities incentive to start up more public works and capital improvement projects; work that can be performed by companies (such as my own) in the private sector. Basically, I would rather have to pay slightly higher taxes but have the promise of more work rather than keep the same tax rate and have business dry up completely.
On the other hand, John McCain wants to cut taxes across the board by eliminating earmarks. I am certainly not a fan of pork barrel projects (see my last entry) but I really don't see how we can cut taxes across the board and still fund our government by simply eliminating wasteful spending. The current economic crisis is bad enough that some government programs are going to have to be funded; I don't think McCain can pay for his plan, and I certainly don't want us to continue to fund our government by borrowing money from foreign nations.
The economic crisis will eventually subside, but it has been caused by a lack of responsibility of consumers and business leaders alike. With all the deregulation of business, banks and loan institutions have greedily loaned money to people that can't afford it, and people who can't afford loans have greedily taken them knowing full well they would never be able to pay the money back. Interestingly, if everybody in the Nation had followed the LDS Church's advice to "live within your means" and "stay out of debt" we wouldn't be in this predicament. But we are, and there simply needs to be more regulation and positive action on the part of the Federal Government rather than just stating that "the fundamentals of the economy are sound and everything will eventually just fix itself". Both candidates want to be proactive, but where Obama wants to revise the whole system McCain just wants to cut spending. I really think we need to shake things up and effect more change than McCain is willing to provide.
Next, there is the issue of Foreign Policy. I'm actually comfortable with either candidate on this one. McCain has more experience here, and if the War in Iraq were the only issue at stake I'd vote for him. But it isn't--while situations surrounding the War in Iraq have been improving, the issues of Afghanistan and our relationship with the World as a whole have been getting worse and worse. I really think we need a figurehead on the world stage that can be respected, and it is no secret that Obama is as popular abroad as he is in the US. His visit to Berlin drew in a bigger crowd of Germans than a combined Scorpions/Falco/Alphaville concert. I know that Obama preaches the doctrine of "Get us the $@&& out of Iraq", but I think people tend to forget that regardless of which candidate gets elected, the Generals in Iraq are going to hold a lot of weight on how we proceed. Will Obama listen to a General that tells him we can't bail out as quickly as he (Obama) wants? Maybe, maybe not, but I'm sure that he won't forget that Bush's biggest blunders in Iraq came when Bush and Rumsfeld chose to ignore the advice of military leaders and pursue their own course of action.
Finally, there is the issue of the Vice-Presidential Nominees and the Campaign Itself. Like the economy, this issue puts me squarely in Obama's camp and is another major factor in my final decision. Throughout the campaign, Obama has been steady and on-message. Even during the Primary season, he stuck with the same general message (Change!) as he started out behind Hillary Clinton and slowly worked his way into the position of front runner. There was no major "moment" that gave him a boost to pass her and win; he just kept at it, and after passing her in the polls he continued at the same rate. McCain has changed his strategy with every wind of change. He started out claiming he would run an honorable campaign, but as he has fallen farther and farther behind his commercials and ads have become more and more negative. Obama hasn't been a saint, but McCain's ads have just been downright mean. It seems that as Obama gets further ahead, McCain's campaign gets proportionally more desperate.
This is nowhere more evident than in McCain's selection of a running mate. I'm sure Sarah Palin is a nice person, but seriously, Senator McCain, what were you thinking? I'm sorry folks, but choosing her as his Vice President is nothing more than a gimmick. Do you really think that he would have picked her if he was 15 points or more ahead of Obama? His personal choice was Lieberman, the "safe" choice was Romney, the desperate choice was something else. The selection did energize the base for a while, but lately I don't think she's winning any points. She simply doesn't have enough experience on the national scene -- ironically, that was one of McCain's attacks on Obama before he made the VP pick (and if I had to pick between those two, I think I'd rather have the lawyer from Chicago negotiating with foreign powers than the hockey mom from Alaska, even if she does think living geographically closer to Siberia makes you an expert on Russia). After just two interviews with major anchors, her lack of understanding became clear. She couldn't even name any Supreme Court cases other than Roe vs. Wade! Granted, the liberal leaning anchors totally set her up, but she should have know that going in and been prepared for it. Now, she doesn't do interviews and the McCain camp has her campaigning in important swing states like Nebraska. Yet the McCain campaign continues to exploit her. Just yesterday I got onto CNN.com and saw this ad:
Are you kidding me?!? "Make History Today"?!? This is wrong on so many levels. First of all, do they seriously think that electing a woman as the first Vice-President is more historical than electing the first African-American President? Seriously? And on top of that, how completely insulting is this to Hillary Clinton? Don't get me wrong; I can't stand Hillary Clinton, but come on! Whether you agree with her or not, Hillary Clinton has worked her can off to get where she is today. And in swoops Sarah Palin, who nobody had heard of six weeks ago, and literally says she's going to pick up where Hillary left off. And they continue to tout it as this big progressive move for Women's Rights! And, to cap it all off, the campaign now has both McCain and Palin constantly referring to themselves as "A couple of Mavericks". I'm sorry, but when you have to remind everybody how rebellious you are, your credibility as a Maverick drops faster than the Dow Jones Index. This, my friends, is the mark of a desperate campaign.
On the other hand, Obama picked Joe Biden, who I already knew plenty about from watching his participation in all the Democratic debates. Joe Biden is a guy who has been in the Senate longer than just about anybody else and is not afraid to tell it like it is. He has as much foreign policy experience as McCain and has been on the Senate foreign relations committee for longer than I've been alive. During all the Democratic debates, he was the only one who constantly brought up issues like Darfur and Pakistan. He could have drilled Sarah Palin into the ground during the VP debate, but (because he was already ahead) chose to take the high road. He certainly fills in some of the major gaps in Obama's foreign policy experience.
So there it is. Between the economy, foriegn policy, the vice presidents, and the campagining, I think that Barack Obama is the best choice. I find it funny that so many people around me say "We really don't have much of a choice, do we?" when I think that EITHER candidate this year is better than either candidate from four years ago! As I said before, I won't have hurt feelings if John McCain is elected, but my vote's going to Obama. The Democrats and the media have been complaining about everything for years -- I say it's time we give them their day. With Obama as President and the Democrats solidly controlling both sides of Congress, they will have NOTHING left to complain about. We'll give them four years and see if all the promised change and prosperity comes to be. If Obama spends the next four years blaming his problems on the last eight years, then as far as I'm concerned, his turn is over and we'll move on.
Whew. That was a long post. I'll see you next week.
