One of these two senators will be our next POTUS. By now we know everything there is to know about them, I should think. Which should it be?
Don’t just tell us who you’re supporting – we already have two IMHO threads covering that. State your case and give your reasons, please.
Don’t tell us who you expect to win, but who should win, and why.
I strongly support Barack Obama. I agree with him on the great majority of issues (of particularly importance to me, he’s pro-choice, pro-environment, favors ending our involvement in the Iraq War sooner rather than later, is less pro-gun than McCain, would appoint Federal judges more in line with my thinking, and IMHO has better plans for economic revitalization and healthcare policy than his opponent). He strikes me as a smarter and more even-tempered person than McCain. I have much greater confidence in Joe Biden than in Sarah Palin if, God forbid, anything were to happen to the next president.
I support Barack Obama because I think he will be the best president. He keeps a cool head in a crisis. He values a lack of drama in everyday life and work. He listens, and doesn’t just wait for the other person to stop talking. He chose Biden, because he thinks Biden would be a good president and will help make him a better president.
He seems to share and practice many of my values, caring for and about his family through good times and bad. He seems serious about education as a priority. He supports a woman’s right to choose, and when even though he knew it would be used to tag him babykiller, he chose to vote against laws which did not even allow exceptions for the health of the mother.
I also think that he can get things done. He is good at building consensus without compromising his core values. His work on getting the video interrogation law passed was amazing, and the law has proven to be well written and a boon to our state.
His work with Dick Luger on getting nuclear material out of circulation impressed me.To me, he chose to focus on a matter that is the most real and pressing threat to our world, the real WMD which could fall into the hands of a terrorist, and fairly quietly worked across party lines to get money for the program and do what he could to make sure it worked.
I am also impressed at how he has inspired people and put together an oranization that works. His organization puts people on the ground and has people talking to people about why they should vote for him.
I was an early and regular contributor to his campaign, and I have not received any robocalls or actual calls. I think this is because his organization has our entire household pegged as won over and is in a state which is won over. None of the other candidates ever have been so good at managing their data so as to not waste money to annoy convinced supportors.
And I like to hear him speak. Even if I did agree with John McCain, I would have trouble voting him because four years of listening to him deliver State of the Union addresses would be excruciating. Listening to Obama will be a pleasure, even if the message is not.
In summary:
I think he has the demeanor to be president.
I think he has the values that I want my president to have.
I think he has skills I want my president to have.
I agree with everything Elendil’s Heir said. I’ll also say that as a Christian, I’m voting for the candidate who I believe will do more to help the abortion problem. I believe Barack’s idea to try and lower the abortion rate with education, birth control, and better adoption processes is better than McCain’s plan of trying and failing to make it illegal. Not to mention that if McCain actually did succeed in making it illegal, we’d have a huge mess on our hands. Women need to be able to make that choice, I just hope eventually a lot fewer of them will have to do so. Hence my vote for Obama.
Also, it’s certainly not my primary factor in picking a president, but a presidential demeanor goes a long way in my eyes. As the going has gotten tough, McCain has gotten erratic and irascible, while Obama has continuously been cool as a cucumber.
And of course had I been tempted to vote for McCain at any point, it might have been on the experience angle. He shot that straight to hell with the pick of Sarah Palin. I don’t want this person anywhere near the White House.
I support Obama. My biggest issues are support for education and science, and Obama has made those a high priority, while McCain has hardly even mentioned them at all. Energy policy (both energy independence and environmental impact) is also important to me, and I think that Obama has a better handle on it (though to his credit, McCain is also making some progress here; just not enough in my opinion). And Obama is going to make efforts to get out of one of the wars we’re in, a position which McCain strongly opposes, and it also seems that McCain is much more likely to get us into more wars.
I’d also like to essentially parrot Elendil’s Heir, with an added emphasis on the Supreme Court. The likely departing justices within the next 4 to 8 years will most probably be the left-leaning and or centrists on the bench. I think it would be a big mistake to have them replaced with right-leaning justices.
Also, I’m curious to see how a Democratic controlled house and senate along with a Democratic president will work out. The Republican’s didn’t have much of a philosophical problem with it when they held sway over everything.
I agree with Elendil’s Heir also. Is he using the Orthanc Stone to read our minds?
One thing I might add- Obama has often spoken to the voters as if they were adults. Refreshing for a politician, especially one running for President to do so. The major speech he made about race earlier this spring, in particular.
I strongly support Barack Obama. I believe he has the wisdom, strength of will, and ability to build consensus we will need to get through these rough times. I became a fan after hearing his 2004 DNC speach, and after reading his first book. The man’s vision is the best asset we have to restore this country’s dignity abroad and prosperity at home (by the latter I mean a change in not just working only to enhance the prosperity of the wealthy, the way Bush has.)
I predict he will not run rough-shod over the Republicans, they way they did when they controlled the Legislative and Executive Branches for six years. I predict he will say those politics will not serve. He will also not kowtow to far-left special interests, which might annoy some leftists, but he will build the consensus we need to get the direction of the country back on track.
I believe that history is on Obama’s side. His campaign’s organizational skills have been superb–no one can fault him on anything related to his being able to get an effective campaign together, and having a broad strategy that transcends previously understood notions of red vs. blue states.
McCain represents vile, old-school Rovian politics at their worst. Sad that he descended to such. He has nothing to offer anymore but the slime he tries to lob at Obama. The maverick has become a troll. Regardless, he’s a loser.
Edit: I agree with the comments about preventing the Supreme Court from lurching further in the Scalia direction.
I support Barack Obama for the Presidency of the United States (corny I know). Obama represents a clean fresh beginning for the United States. I value how the US is seen in the eyes of the world and electing Obama will show the rest of the globe that we can truly turn the page away from the Bush Dynasty, to a new more energized and healthy country.
I like Obama’s policies on Green Energy, expanding our energy technology, and creating jobs in the green industry.
Bottom Line: I just want to see what the man can do when he’s got the reins of the presidency - I know what McCain and Palin would do, I want to see what Obama can do.
I’m supporting Barack Obama because he’s a Democrat.
Do we really know everything about Obama’s relationship with Ayers? 
And if you think this is the last thread about those guys, then I’ve got this bridge just north of where I live that you might be interested in.
As the one lone voice of reason in ObamaNation (just kidding), I support McCain, because I’m a Conservative and I mostly like his positions on issues. He has decades of experience in Washington, and although he may be crusty and irritable sometimes, I think he’s basically a good guy. I think that with all the decline of US manufacturing and market turmoil, businesses don’t need to be taxed any more than they are now. Trickle-down economics might or might not work but you know if businesses are getting less profits due to new taxes, they’ll have to charge more money for their goods and services. If it’s bad enough they will hire less workers or lay workers off. “Spreading the wealth” is a very scary statement to me. That’s what stock dividends are for. I also don’t want to see a Democratic Congress with a Democratic President, especially when Obama states on his site that he’d like to do things like renew the Assault Weapons Ban.
I’m supporting John McCain because he’s not Barack Obama. We’ve just had 8 years of an inexperienced religious fanatic who couldn’t be trusted around the 2nd amendment, I think it’s time for a change.
And he has the oldness we need.
I like his ideals. The audacity of hope. Not only the belief that change is possible, but also the conviction to take action and make it happen. He believes government can work for the people if people believe in it and work to change it in the right direction.
He not only talks about change, but has shown he knows what it takes to make it happen. He knows change comes from a grassroots movement of the people, not from one person in power. He knows that this election is the time to bring about change, just as the GOP ship has sunk and a new ship will get to set the sails.
He is refreshingly mature. A word that the mind won’t associate with politicians. To the point that it surprised everyone when Obama decided to deal with Reverend Wright like an adult. Even going as far as to talk to the people as adults, by addressing racial realities instead of ignoring them.
He is cautious. He thinks things through before he makes big decisions. He won’t embarrass America when dealing with foreigners. *I like that. *
He is not divisive. He tries to make policies that will appeal to all Americans. When you have issues like energy independence, global warming and the economic crisis, you need someone who can get the people to agree on a workable solution.
Finally, I want kids in elementary schools taking U.S. history to be told the truth. When I took U.S. history in college I found out that our country was based on a lie. That since we declared certain truths to be self evident, our rhetoric has never matched our reality.
On Nov. 4th America can finally entrust its highest office to someone who is not a white anglo-saxon.
Children will no longer be taught America’s most cherished illusion, but will instead learn how America delivered it’s greatest promise.
I want a small-government, fiscal conservative, pro-life president who will appoint strict constructionist Justices. No question for me, it’s McCain. He’s certainly not my ideal candidate, but neither is he the definition of my worst-case Prez. Obama tends toward that end of the spectrum–a president who will “solve” every problem anyone in the country has, who believes he knows best how to spend my money, who wants to expand government and social infrastructure (making the government that much more costly and inefficient, without solving a friggin’ thing ultimately), who is stridently pro-choice, and who I believe will appoint “living Constitution” Justices. No thanks.
I’m hoping for Barak Obama because I believe he’s a driven man and had his sights on the White House before he ever became a community organizer. I believe that due to his unique perspective in growing up he dearly wants to bridge the gap between white and black, poor and rich America because he’s been he’s been deep in both worlds and believes he’s the man to do it.
His political career includes his Harvard Law School experience where he’s shown he can secure political support (Harvard Law Review) from those politically opposed to him because he developed a reputation of fairness and inclusiveness.
He can be ruthless where neccessary as evidenced by his initiation of ballot reviews to eliminate his opponents. You want ruthlessness in a leader when warranted.
He’s demonstrated a superb campaign that I believe no opponent can overcome.
Anyone so driven, so effective, so well liked, so invested , with such impeccable character, deserves to be president.
And I don’t think he’s a liberal. I think he would prefer to be a liberal, but I believe his choices will be pragmatically measured to be inclusive of conservatives as much as possible.
I like McCain, but he never had a chance. He never really had a political base, and he never displayed a positive vision for the country. A vote for McCain seems to me just a vote against Obama, or Democrats, or liberals or “socialism”. And that seems to me all McCain could campaign on. Kind of tragic IMHO.
How is Obama a religious fanatic, and what did W ever do against the 2nd Amendment?
Yes.
Does it go anywhere?
Spreading the wealth is what ALL taxes do. I paid more then $50K in tax last year. It got spread around to support roads, schools, bombs and food stamps among other things. I don’t live in America and sure as hell my taxes did not end up in the UAE( except for contracts for Halliburton) where I could benefit from them.
Yep, Bush spread my wealth around… so would McCain and so will Obama.
$50K ? I sure hope you got a thankyou letter from the US government.Sounds like you’ll even get a tax hike next year.