Monday, October 20, 2008
My Reasons for Voting for Obama
My conservative friend H challenged me to give him my reasons for voting for Obama rather than McCain. Here is what I wrote:
1. I dread the possibility of continuing the incompetence of the Bush administration in foreign policy. Bush's policies have produced a lot of bad feelings toward my country. Bush's administration blundered badly in Iraq. I will go into details some other time. I am convinced that McCain would listen to many of the same advisors that have given Bush such bad advice. With Barack, a Democrat, we would at least have a new set of people giving the President advice. I hope that their advice is better than the advice that George Bush got and acted on. In short, neither Obama nor McCain impresses me as an expert on foreign policy. Each one would have to rely on good advisors.
2. I dread the possibility of an ultra-conservative administration continuing to appoint federal judges according to the standards of the Bush administration. Just as in the case of foreign policy, a President would listen to advisors regarding such appointments. Again, McCain would keep many of Bush's advisors and would continue to cater to and placate the fundies regarding such things as stem cell research, women's right to choose, and the like in his choice of judicial appointments. Judges serve for life and some of the Bush appointees are pretty young. They will be influencing the interpretation of federal laws for decades.
3. Obama's economic policy, such as it is, makes more sense to me than McCain's. Neither man will willingly tell the public that taxes will have to be raised because we can not indefinitely continue to sell our bonds to China to cover the shortfall in tax revenue. McCain pretends that we can still REDUCE taxes still more. Obama indicates which segment of the population would have to be taxed more than at present. I think his position is more realistic than McCain's.
1. I dread the possibility of continuing the incompetence of the Bush administration in foreign policy. Bush's policies have produced a lot of bad feelings toward my country. Bush's administration blundered badly in Iraq. I will go into details some other time. I am convinced that McCain would listen to many of the same advisors that have given Bush such bad advice. With Barack, a Democrat, we would at least have a new set of people giving the President advice. I hope that their advice is better than the advice that George Bush got and acted on. In short, neither Obama nor McCain impresses me as an expert on foreign policy. Each one would have to rely on good advisors.
2. I dread the possibility of an ultra-conservative administration continuing to appoint federal judges according to the standards of the Bush administration. Just as in the case of foreign policy, a President would listen to advisors regarding such appointments. Again, McCain would keep many of Bush's advisors and would continue to cater to and placate the fundies regarding such things as stem cell research, women's right to choose, and the like in his choice of judicial appointments. Judges serve for life and some of the Bush appointees are pretty young. They will be influencing the interpretation of federal laws for decades.
3. Obama's economic policy, such as it is, makes more sense to me than McCain's. Neither man will willingly tell the public that taxes will have to be raised because we can not indefinitely continue to sell our bonds to China to cover the shortfall in tax revenue. McCain pretends that we can still REDUCE taxes still more. Obama indicates which segment of the population would have to be taxed more than at present. I think his position is more realistic than McCain's.
Labels: Barack Obama, Bush's incompetent foreign policy, John McCain, Presidential election
