The issues are important. And in almost all cases, I agree with Obama's policy statements on how specific issues should be addressed. Not that I would expect to agree with all of any one individual's ideas..
But, there are other reasons that I will vote for Obama that are not about specific issues, but are just as compelling, and perhaps more so. For in the end, it is the character and intellect of the man who holds the office that matters most.
Obama gets IT.
» He grew up poor, raised by a single mother, and his grandmother. He understands what it is like for average Americans, and he has demonstrated selfless compassion, as well as cool resolve.
» He and Michelle Obama have struggled with many of the same issues that so many of us have, including student loans, juggling kids with the challenges inherent in any two-career family.
Obama makes good decisions.
» His choice of a vice presidential running mate is telling, as it is with every presidential candidate. He chose a man who has the experience which he himself lacks in the area of foreign policy. And while many chortle at Biden for various reasons, his credentials in this area are noted and not to be mocked. Overall, it was a good, and considered choice.
» He is highly intelligent, with a keen intellect, something we haven't seen in a President for a very long time. A great example of the kind of thinking we can expect when he is the President.
» Unlike John McCain, there is no doubt in my mind that Obama will put his country first.
» He is inclusive rather than exclusive. He does not need to appeal to the ignorant in his selection of a running mate.
And perhaps most importantly, Obama inspires HOPE.
» He makes me feel that we can still be the country that I grew up in. The country that valued freedom, that didn't diminish it by electing arrogant fools to high office. The country that disdained fascism, instead of the country that began taking steps towards fascism during the administration of the current president.
» He is not mired in old politics, nor a member of the “good ole boy network”.
» His thoughtful, calm, resolute and generally positive demeanor arouse in me the hope that the hole that has been dug for this country is not too deep to climb out of. That all of our bridges have not been burned, and those that have, might be resurrected.
About John Sidney McCain III
Like W, JOHN MCCAIN DOES NOT GET IT.
« McCain grew up well off, the son of an Admiral, and money on his mother's side. As much as he likes to disavow it, he is an elitist. Certainly, the average American does not own eight homes, and thirteen cars. I too grew up well off, and I recognize that there is usually a distance between the reality of those who are wealthy, and those who are not. It is far easier to understand the reality of the majority if you did not spend your entire life among the 5% of the population that is rarely touched by the economy, job loss, issues of working families, etcetera..
« He seems to live in the past, without talking much about the future. For examples of this, view the first presidential debate. The transcript in its entirety, is also available.
« McCain's choice of a running mate is also telling. After all the hype about putting his "country first", he put his country last, and his political ambitions first in his choice of Alaska governor, Sarah Palin¹.. In making that choice, McCain has put this country at risk. The risk of the destruction of this country if the woman who would be one seventy-two-year-old heartbeat away from the presidency were to become the President. I shudder to think of it, and will be filled with terror until this election is over and Obama is elected.
« The attempts by the McCain campaign at race baiting are not only disgusting and completely unbefitting the high office that McCain and Palin are running for, but they are dangerous and divisive. These types of tactics, a form of fear mongering, are seen most often in countries where fascists are at work.
« His ill-run campaign, his erratic behavior, his choice to endlessly lie about and attack Obama, all these things speak to the character of the man, and the kind of president he would be. I see very little difference between McCain and W.
On the Republican Party, such as it is....
I was once non-partisan, and although I was a registered Democrat, I considered myself an Independent. I grew up in a political family and I remember when I actually liked most of those that I knew in the Republican Party. Perhaps because the GOP had not yet allowed itself to relentlessly pander to the far right, the whack jobs, the wing nuts, the ignorant who would control us all based on their own greed, religious beliefs and moral certitude. And too, the GOP had not yet taken a stand against intellectualism, choosing folksy, crass and ignorant instead. The true conservatives that I grew up knowing were also intellectuals. No longer. The GOP has chased the intellectual wing of the party out, and this is clearly evident if you look at the long list of notable Republicans who have decamped.
No, instead the GOP pandered to it's base, the far-right wing evangelicals. As a result, 'liberal' became a dirty word, starting with the Reagan administration. A war in Iraq, fought on lies, resulting in the deaths of 4,187 Americans, 30,000+ wounded Americans, and at a cost of close to $600 billion ---this has become the legacy of the Republican Party.
Add to that war, the torture of human beings in defiance of the Geneva Convention, in direct defiance of all that we stood for in the world as the "Land of the Free". Gone. Then look no further than the offices of Dick Cheney and George W. Bush for the men who subverted our Constitution, a document that has done well by us for over two hundred years. The changes they made, in a manipulative and largely secretive manner, may or may not be reversed. What will not ever be reversed is the stain on this country with it's high ideals, it's magnificent dream of a people that could be bound together not by a common religion or a common ancestry, but by an ideal as esoteric as any, that human beings could and should be free.
What will be difficult to forgive is the notion that it was okay to spy on American citizens via email, and telephone, listening, commenting on and laughing at the sex play between married Americans, all under the umbrella of the Patriot Act. And exactly how did these activities protect us from terrorists? The Bush administration has made many citizens more fearful of their own government than we are of terrorists, a disgraceful, despicable state of affairs caused entirely by the fear mongering of the Republican Party.
Add to that war, the torture of human beings in defiance of the Geneva Convention, in direct defiance of all that we stood for in the world as the "Land of the Free". Gone. Then look no further than the offices of Dick Cheney and George W. Bush for the men who subverted our Constitution, a document that has done well by us for over two hundred years. The changes they made, in a manipulative and largely secretive manner, may or may not be reversed. What will not ever be reversed is the stain on this country with it's high ideals, it's magnificent dream of a people that could be bound together not by a common religion or a common ancestry, but by an ideal as esoteric as any, that human beings could and should be free.
What will be difficult to forgive is the notion that it was right to spy on American citizens via email, and telephone, listening, commenting on and laughing at the sex play between married Americans, all under the umbrella of the Patriot Act. And exactly how did these activities protect us from terrorists? The Bush administration has made many citizens more fearful of their own government than we are of terrorists, a disgraceful, despicable state of affairs caused entirely by the fear mongering of the Republican Party.
I have in the past voted for Republicans as well as Democrats. If I never in my life see a Republican in the highest office again, it will still be too soon. The Republican Party has abused that office, and the trust of the American people. Those who gave us Bush and Cheney, those who supported the far right-wing of the GOP rather than supporting the nation it is sworn to protect, and the ensuing near destruction of everything we hold dear, deserve to lose it for a very long time.
Don't forget to vote on November 4. We deserve a great president. We deserve Obama.
Cross-posted on Inspire Emotion.
