Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luthur King once fought to end slavery and for equal civil rights for African-Americans. Even just two decades ago, it was inconceivable that a black man could sit in the Oval Office as President of the United States. Today, Barack Obama is the accumulation of MLK's dream and on the eve of making history as our nation's first African-American President.
This country is at a crossroads, caught between an indifference aboard and an economic meltdown at home. The Bush years have not been kind to us. We have alienated our foreign allies through our unilateralism, gotten ourselves into a mess called Iraq while Bin Laden remains free and alive, and bankrupted our own economy through deregulation and easy credit to those with no ability to pay. At times, the American dream seems lost.
To lead this country through these perilous times, we need a leader with the vision, intelligence and temperament to not only resolve our present problems but to lead us into a better future through passion, inspiration and hope.
I believe that Barack Obama is this leader and I am proud to vote for him on 11/4.
Despite being new to the national political scene, the Obama has taken the country by storm. His candidacy has excited the American people, attracting the young, old, people from different racial and demographic backgrounds, Republicans, Democrats and independents alike. By all accounts, Obama is a consensus-builder, a leader with the ability to bring together people and work with others, even with different views, to form a consensus. Obama is a Harvard educated lawyer and constitutional scholar. His critics often refer to him as an elitist, as if his eduction and intelligence should be a source of belittlement. Obama has a keen ability with words, eloquent and patient in his delivery. He has been unflappable through the three debates, winning all of them, appearing to be calm, cool and collected even when his character was being attacked. In his governance, we can rest assured that decisions will be carefully thought out and debated.
Obama has risen above the fray, above politics and above the typical partisan bullshit that has engulfed our government in recent years. Unlike McCain, Obama's selection for Vice President and first most important executive decision, provides good insight how will govern. While Joe Biden will not win Obama any additional votes, he does give Obama the foreign policy experience he arguably lacks and a partner to debate against and bounce ideas off from.
In contrast, McCain fumbled his first most important executive decision with the selection of Sarah Palin as his VP running mate. As obvious as Palin's lack of experience, knowledge and arguably even intelligence, was that her selection was a political stunt. After Palin's devastating but comical interviews with Charles Gibson and Katie Couric, it was abundantly clear that Sarah Palin is the most unqualified candidate for Vice President in modern political history, maybe even ever. She is an insult to the intelligence of all American voters. His first failed display at maverickosity was a bust. Instead of showing us what a real maverick he claimed to be by selecting his first choice of Joe Lieberman as VP, he sought to appease the Rush Limbaugh's of his party. This decision puts John McCain first, not country first as his campaign slogan suggests and should Palin ever need to step into the shoes of a 72 year old cancer survivor, this decision puts the country and its citizens in harm's way.
Since his official nomination, McCain's campaign has been in a dizzying downward spiral and with a little more than two weeks to go before election day, I'm not sure if it's hit rock bottom yet.
In mid-September, McCain insisted that the fundamentals of our economy is strong. A few days later, our fundamentally strong economy decided to implode. The new line became the economy is in crisis and McCain will come to save the day. He suspended his campaign, threatened to skip the first Presidential debate, in order to go back to Washington DC to save the economy. However instead of being part of the solution, McCain was part of the problem. His erratic behavior was simply another political stunt.
Weeks later, his campaign announced that they were to turn the page on the economy and aggressively attack Obama's personal character. What started with the "palling around with terrorists" comment by Palin, the McCain campaign has sunken to a depth that has not been witnessed since racial segregation existed in the 1950's and 1960's. Words like a certain racial epithet, kill him, terrorist, Muslim and Arab have all been shouted by McCain supports in description of Obama. As the recent McCain/Palin rallies have become just a burning cross shy of a KKK hate rally, McCain and Palin have done little to nothing to stop it. In fact, in my opinion, they have even encouraged it at times.
McCain did not always sell his soul to the GOP right. Some months ago, I voted for John McCain in the California Republican primary. The past McCain was critical of the Bush tax cuts, denounced torture, sought reform on issues such as immigration and championed climate change. In his run rightward, the present McCain is unrecognizable.
The self-proclaimed maverick, McCain is not and the once honorable war hero and US Senator has turned out to be a fraud, a sell-out to his own personal ambitions. All the wheels on the straight-talk express have fallen off.
I am so disgusted and disillusioned by McCain, the GOP and religious conservative extremists, it has only reinforced my decision to support Obama.
Once in a generation, a political candidate arrives with the ability to transform an entire nation. Former Presidents like Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan were all transformative figures in their own era. I believe that Barack Obama will be such a President. Obama's candidacy has excited me with the hope of change and a better tomorrow, as millions of others. As the
Los Angeles Times best stated in their endorsement, Barack Obama represents the nation as it is, and as it aspires to be.
Labels: Opinion, Politics
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