Time to Vote

This has been and extremely difficult choice for me. I have friends and family on both sides of the fence… both sides have good arguments and I almost always agree with everyone. And, it would seem that if I vote for McCain some people will think that I am a Bush-loving warmonger who loves torturing people and that I personally ruined the economy… however, if I vote for Obama then I am pretty much a pinko communist who thinks that we should all give our money to the government for redistribution.. oh yeah, and I like killing babies in my spare time.

So.. which is it? Do I want to be a hate filled warmonger? Or do I want to be a baby-eating communist?

Okay.. let me walk through this. First of all we have taxes. Everyone is promising me tax breaks but Obama wants to tax the rich.. i.e. everyone making over 250k. I think this is a pretty terrible idea. Two words: “Jimmy Carter”. And actually.. I don’t need tax breaks.. I don’t think anyone should. I don’t think there is any reason why anyone should be paying taxes.. if you give enough away you get enough tax breaks to come out even. If you are paying a lot of taxes.. trying giving it away so it doesn’t go into the bureaucracy.

Iraq war. Well Obama was right for opposing this mess.. but his “withdraw at any cost” is complete foolishness. What would we do.. leave a note for the Iraqis on the way out? “Sorry for the mess.. best of luck”. Thankfully he changed his tune on this.

Abortion. Sorry folks, abortion isn’t going away. (Though, I have no comprehension of “pro choice”. As I put it in my high school debate: “I am pro choice. If I choose to have sex then I run the risk of having an unwanted pregnancy. The choice has been made.”) After jumping off a cliff you can’t stop half way and say “Hey, this isn’t fair, I didn’t choose to hit the ground.” This isn’t rocket science. Obviously it gets a bit more complicated.. i.e. when women don’t choose to have sex but someone else makes that decision for them.. Anyway, abortion is not a huge topic for me. It’s not going away. I do not think this should be a deciding factor in this election.

Sarah Palin. I am sorry, she just doesn’t strike me a being “presidential”… she seems to be a female George Jr. I have nothing against her personally.. she could be another Truman as my dad pointed out. But.. I just don’t want to go there.. and with a president in his mid seventies.. there is a reasonable chance she could be president. I don’t really want a “Joe SixPack” president.

The world. The Economist has been polling the rest of the world and who they would elect .. they chose Obama.. with about 99% of the votes. However, I typically disagree with the rest of the world..

Economics. Well, I have seen two polls of economists.. both overwhelming agree that Obama’s the man for the job. Not to mention the fact that the Economist.. the magazine has pretty much endorsed him.. which is odd since they are typically anti-regulation free marketeers.

Campaign. I just don’t like the McCain campaign.. at all. It has been nasty and seems reliant on fear mongering. McCain himself was nasty during the last debate.. his whole demeanor towards Barack was ugly. While Barack was cool, calm, and collected.. McCain was rolling his eyes and guffawing. I would have happily chose McCain over Bush in 2000. But that ship has sailed… the McCain of 2008 is unpleasant at best.

The “Big Government” argument. Have you been paying attention? Have you seen what Bush and the Republican congress did? Did Government spending shrink? Were budgets balanced? Laws repealed? Freedoms restored? National debt? Have you seen McCain’s plan to fix everything? Buying expensive mortgages.. stealing “wind fall profits” from oil companies.. handing out checks.. increasing government spending. I am sorry, but the old “Republican = smaller government” argument just doesn’t stand anymore. What you’re looking for is “Libertarian”.

Race. I hate to say it, but this country needs a black president. Hopefully it will put to rest this whole racism thing. If Obama isn’t elected cries of racism will be heard around the world… and sadly, they will partially be right. I have been shocked by some of the interviews I have heard on NPR. Not just race.. but many people are convinced that he secretly has a bomb strapped to his chest. It’s unbelievable.

Hollywood. A huge red flag for me. Every time I see celebrity endorse Obama it makes me want to turn around and run the other way.

I have some serious reservations about Obama. I strongly disagree with him on a lot of things.. but in the end, I think he is what our country needs right now. He is a breath of fresh air.. and in a few years.. when people realize he isn’t the savior maybe people will stop trying to place their faith in our Government.

And.. I like the guy… I like his heart, from what I have seen of it. McCain is showing himself to be a grumpy old curmudgeon. I just wish we could try him out for a year and see how it goes.

Oh, and another one. If McCain is elected he won’t be able to do anything with a Democrat supermajority in congress.

And.. technology.. I am a big tech guy and my livelyhood depends on the tech industry. I am a big fan of Obama’s use of technology and his idea of appointing a CTO for the gov’t is great.

.. if only we could just try him out for a year or so. Oh well, 4yrs isn’t too long… he can’t make things too much worse.