I typically try to keep political discussion to a minimum because of how caustic the subject can be, but I’ve spoken my mind on the subject in the past, and refuse to be a prisoner of political correctness on my own blog, so here we go.
Living in Spokane, Washington, where voting is done entirely via mail-in ballots (I suspect mainly because the county is large enough and generally has a low enough population density that polling stations are less effective and cost-efficient than they would be in Seattle or an eastern state where it seems you’re always 5 minutes from three other cities), my wife and I have actually already voted, so I guess this is more of an explanation and commentary post than a “who am I gonna vote for” post (of course, IMO, being undecided at this point means you’re either not paying attention, are probably not going to vote, or Ron Paul isn’t on your ballot this year).
I have cast my vote for Senator Barack Obama, and it’s not because I’m black (which I’m not), or because I’d feel guilty about not voting for the black guy because of some inverted racism BS. I voted for him because after 8 years of having a President who is only barely capable of forming complete sentences in front of the American people, it’s incredibly refreshing to see a candidate who is not only well-spoken, but who speaks to his audience like they’re adults, and not stupid children unable to handle complex truths. I voted for him because after 8 years of “with us or against us”-style governing – something that McCain seems all too eager to perpetuate – Obama readily recognizes that the world is not a Hollywood action film or an episode of 24. I voted for him because throughout his campaign, he has been able and willing to discuss his plans and policies, while John McCain has been increasingly focused on bad-mouthing his opponent at the expense of putting forth his own ideas. I don’t think I’ve heard a new policy idea from McCain since before the last Presidential debate, and in an environment of extreme market volatility and evolving economic crisis, that’s not good. It doesn’t matter now, but over the past few weeks I’ve been looking at McCain and thinking “tell me what you’re going to do as President, sir, don’t waste my time and attention rambling on about Bill Ayers and false assertions that your opponent is a socialist for giving me a tax cut,” and not once has he done anything of the sort.
Obama also strikes me as far more presidential than McCain in terms of personality, mannerisms, and approach. He is level-headed, objective, and slow to anger (judging by the last debate, though, he does get easily amused at people spewing total bullshit, but that’s fine with me), with a long-term view of this country’s future, and a plan for getting us there. He’s not afraid to speak his mind if he disagrees with someone, but is respectful in how he handles those disagreements, and generally seems very tolerant of opposing viewpoints, even if he thinks they’re ultimately wrong. In a stunning change from the norm, he’s also an incredible optimist who sees the best in this country and its people. McCain on the other hand bounces from attack to attack on a weekly basis, is quick to anger, makes rash decisions (Sarah Palin, Q.E.D.), is very resistant and intolerant of views other than his own (also evident in the last debate, with all the eye-rolling and obnoxious chuckling [and greepy grins] whenever Obama opened his mouth, especially toward the end), and seems to have the same attitude towards the rest of the world that Bush has, and that alone terrifies the hell out of me. He’s also personally admitted that the economy is not his strong suit, and when we’re in the middle of an economic crisis/meltdown, that’s not a good person to have in charge of the country. The nail in the coffin is probably that he’s taken to using the same divisive fear-based politics that Bosh has employed over the past 8 years to get people to join his cause because the alternative could be the complete destruction of the entire nation (ZOMFG TERRORISM! ALERT LEVEL ORANGE!).
In a way it’s sad, because I might have considered voting for McCain if he were the same person he was in 2000, and was able to convince me that he’d actually clean up his party. Now, though, he’s become a slave to his party, turning his back on many (if not all) of his former principles in what looks like a desperate effort to win the election at all costs (and if your desperation is that transparent, it’s not a good sign for your chances). His choice of running mate has only further damaged any positive opinion of him I might have had. Sarah Palin has only been on the national stage for 2 months, and in that time she’s displayed a gross lack of understanding about the responsibilities of the job she’s seeking to obtain, a complete inability (and even reluctance) to talk to the press, has been caught in numerous bold-faced lies (including her most recent claim that the Trooper-gate investigation cleared her of any ethical wrongdoing, when in fact the report stated just the opposite), has spent over $150,000 on clothes and accessories (which is more than 6 times what I make in a year… so don’t go telling me you’re a “common woman hockey-mom”, ma’am), and it’s been reported that while governor, she flew her kids around Alaska on the taxpayers’ dime to the tune of over $22,000. This is just in two months! Hell, her complete lack of understanding about what the Vice President actually does should disqualify her from the position all by itself. If the VP debate were a job interview, she’d have been kicked to the curb in a heartbeat with all of her winkin’ and not answerin’ the questions she was asked and makin’ fun of the other applicants. (On a side-note, I want to state for the record how delicious it was when Obama told Joe the Plumber what his fine would be for not providing health care to his fictional employees… “ZERO!?!?!” Oh the lulz… THAT is how you win debates, by shutting your opponent up and shutting their argument down, literally.)
While I’m on the subject of treating the Presidency like a job and not just an elected office, I continue to be completely baffled by the number of people in this country who seem to be completely terrified of the concept of a smart person being President. Honestly, in any other job, being smart is an unequivocal bonus (well, aside from minimum wage positions where being smart and highly-educated means you’re a high-risk employee, because odds are you’ll find a better job before your soul is crushed by the fry machine…). Why, then, would we not want the single most powerful person in the country to be an egg-headed boy-genius? I actually posed this question to a co-worker who isn’t voting for Obama partly because he’s “an elitist” (and partly because he’s “a socialist”, which I’ll get to…), and his response was that if someone’s too smart or too successful, they have no concept of how the average person thinks or what they want from their country, and end up making all sorts of bad policy decisions that negatively impact everyday working-class Americans. Honestly I was so baffled by the implication that Barack Obama is more of an elitist than the guy with a multi-million-dollar trophy wife, 7 houses, and 13 cars that I couldn’t come up with a counter-point (in hindsight, this sentence is perhaps the most perfect response I could have given).
Now, as for this whole Joe the Plumber business… John McCain has spun this guy’s story into a completely mythical fabrication. As McCain tells it, Obama knocked on the man’s front door, was asked a “tough question” about his tax plan from the perspective of a small-business entrepreneur, and his only response was that we should “spread the wealth around”. Now, Obama is persecuting poor Joe for asking a question and invading his privacy by having news vans parked in front of his house. The patent falsehood of this entire talkign point is so completely unfathomable I have to wonder if anybody in the McCain campaign even lives on this planet. In truth, Joe approached Obama at an unscheduled campaign stop in his neighborhood, asked his question, and was told unequivocably by Obama that he would be paying no more taxes than he would have under Clinton’s administration (and would only be paying those higher taxes on income over $250,000… so making $260,000 would mean only $10,000 would be taxed at the higher rate), and that by cutting his taxes on his current wages (which are, in fact, well below the $200,000 bracket for single-filer small business income), he would be helping Joe buy his company sooner. After that conversation, McCain (not Obama) mentioned him 21 times in the last debate, and has mentioned him at seemingly every opportunity since then. If anybody’s persecuting the poor guy and keeping him in the spotlight for asking Obama a “tough question” (and honestly, “are you going to raise my taxes if I make over $250,000 a year” is not a “tough question”, that’s fact-checking), it’s John McCain. McCain brought him up frequently enough that the media wanted to talk to him and find out more about this mystical “Joe the Plumber”, and that has nothing to do with his original question about Obama’s tax policy. But, McCain can now use this iconic figure as a talking point and rallying cry among his supporters (few people outside of that base seem to be buying his BS) rather than having to spend time talking about the actual issues, so I guess in some twisted way, it’s a win for McCain’s strategy of campaigning.
Finally, I’ve noticed a lot of talk about Obama having significant ground games and even significant ad buys in very red states like Texas, North Dakota, and Georgia, as well as long-shot battlegrounds like West Virginia (and to a degree, Indiana, though that one seems closer to flipping now). Mostly, people are confused about why he’s wasting money and effort in those states instead of just concentrating on the ones he knows (or thinks) he can win to pass to 270-mark in the electoral college. Honestly, I think this is a concerted effort on his behalf to spur voter participation and drive up the popular vote, so that even if the electoral college is close, his win percentage in the popular vote is significant because of participation in all 50 states. This is how you be a uniter, not a divider, ladies and gentlemen. The more of a mandate he can claim to have because of electoral college and especially popular vote success, the easier it will be for him to do his job as President… and if a 51% popular vote win was enough for Bush to have a “mandate” in his second term, well more than 51% should be beyond sufficient to claim the same thing (and actually have those who didn’t vote for you believe it). Plus, when you raise $150 million in a single month, you gotta spend it somewhere, so why not?
Obama/Biden ‘08!