god i wish europe were allowed to elect our president so there wouldn't be any question over this, i feel the rest of the world, atleast those paying attention, understand the clear choice here.
note that i used to work for a non-profit, Working America, that fights for labor issues, and one that is endorsing obama right now, so i feel pretty strongly about this.
tx bill, are you honestly going to tell me that a lack of experience is your main reason for not wanting obama to win (i know you didn't say that exactly, but that seems to be your focus). if their policy positions were reversed, if obama supported everything mccain currently does, and vise versa, can you honestly tell me that you'd still want mccain to win. Its fine if you want mccain to win based on his policy positions, but if thats the case than don't try to make it about experience then, as i'm pretty sure those issues are secondary, atleast to the average informed voter. and also, don't try to say that McCain's current views are derived from greater experience, as Biden also has a significant degree of experience and differs with mccain on just about everything.
also while we're on the subject of experience, lets talk about foreign policy experience, which is what obama is criticized about most often. Exactly what the [Poor language removed] does foreign policy experience mean anyways?? Is it that great of a thing to have experience with past U.S. foreign policy when we keep making the same mistakes anyways. Wouldn't someone with knowledge of foreign policy history have considered the coup on Iranian prime minister Mohammed Mossadegh, back in the 50's i think, which deposed a democratically elected leader and essentially created the climate of islamic fundementalism that exists there today. Wouldn't one think that after looking at the numerous examples like that, of how our hasty involvement in the middle east has backfired repeatedly (like when we backed saddam), we'd maybe reconsider the iraq invasion.
As far as i'm concerned foreign policy experience barely means anything, if those with "experience" will repeat the mistakes of the past anyways.
leonbil is right about McCain's similarity to bush, this past year he voted with him 95% of the time. Granted his voting record is significantly less partisan than your average senate republican, but the fact that this happened during the year he began gearing up his campaign reflects on his principles. tbh i liked mccain up until 2004 (that is i wouldn't mind him as far as republicans go), but once he outwardly endorsed bush, and the expense of his friend John Kerry, who's policy views were much more similar to his own, and after bush had made numerous personal attacks on him, i lost a lot of respect for him. the tipping point for me was when he voted against the ban on water-boarding, which is one of the torture techniques he'd previously spoken out against, as an obvious attempt to solidify his base at the expense of his principles.
but leonbil, i don't exactly share your cynicism about racist americans not electing him. i'm not sure if you live in the states or not, but most racism tends to be concentrated in areas that consistently go red anyways (no i'm not saying that republicans are racist, just that the demographics tend to overlap). i don't think anyone was under the impression that obama could win many southern states, but really no democrat could win their anyways. he's making a bold play for VA, having opened up over 20 offices across the state, and if he manages to win their, that could be the turning point in the election.
also leonbil, if you don't live in the states you probably havent' seen any, but the McCain camp started running attack ads very early in the summer, which is almost always a bad sign when you need to resort to mudslinging that quickly.
anyways, the main reason i'm supporting obama is for labour related issues. obama has atleast said that he'll roll back the bush upperclass taxcuts, while mccain hasn't even indicated as such. I honestly heard a conservative radio host slam obama for indicating that he'll raise taxes on the top bracket to 39%. What he failed to mention was that during the clinton years taxes for the top bracket were at 39.6%, and currently they're at 35%. (and of course, the lowest brackets have seen absolutely no change in their level of taxation, that's america for you) mccain has already showed that he'll cater to the republican base, and the republican base is rich and doesn't like paying money, so you can bet those are going to stay. Forclosures are the highest they've been since the great depression, and i don't trust the mccain to do enough about it, as his republican base are more than happy to embrace the "it's their own fault" mentality and keep the government out of it. 10 million children across the country don't have healthcare, and McCain voted AGAINST reauthorizing the SCHIP bill, so we can't depend on him to fix the single worst healthcare system of any industrialized nation.
corporate greed is spiraling out of control with exxon reporting record profits, and McCain is in favor of expansive off-shore drilling, just so companies like exxon can make even more money??? i know that McCain won't do anything to stop corporations from making money, instead he'll probably expand the defense budget and draw out these wars so defense contractors can keep making money, which they in turn will pay to lobbyist that will finance his reelection campaign.
on the subject of political correctness, your right tx bill, christians may not have flown planes into buildings recently, but what about the spanish inquisition, it was a long time ago, but its still one of the greatest systematic persecutions in history. What about the IRA for a more recent example? What about Fred Phelps protesting outside the funerals of the VA Tech shooting victims because he believed that god had wanted those innocent college students to die? Sure these are extreme examples, just like the examples you cited were of islamist extremists.
also, had you considered that the reason people are less politically correct about christianity (which i don't necessarily agree with, I personally thought Bruce's statement crossed the line too, even though i'm an agnostic), is because the vast majority of Americans are christians, so theirs less chance of misguided comments snowballing into persecution? If you call someone a F*G in public, noone blinks an eye, but in certain areas of the states if you shout something insulting about jesus, you bet your ass someone's going to say something about it. as i've participated in numerous theological discussions, i have a pretty good idea of the line you have to cross before offending a christian, and its easy to get to than you might think oftentimes.
(on a side note, i haven't read the bible in its entirety but i've read summations of several different parts of it, and talked to many people who have. I think a lot of the people who have read the bible were atleast partially convinced at a first glance, whereas the skeptics were intially turned off to it altogether. Btw, i have many christian friends who know much less about the bible than i do)
also, where are these PC police that you're talking about? in truth, I find it much more annoying when people complain about over-enforcement of political correctness than when they over-enforce PC to begin with. Bitching about bitching is very unbecoming. i hear a great deal more about how political correctness is ridiculous than i hear from actual groups that support PC.
finally, on the subject of Obama's cult of personality, I was a bit worried to begin with too, but now that Biden's on the ticket, I can say he's probably the smartest one in the race and the most fit to be president. As long as he defers to biden for judgment on complicated issues, i don't mind if obama garners all the votes so biden will be allowed to lead.
edit: a hundred points to anyone who actually reads this entire post
