Nearly two years of crap come to and end tomorrow starting at 7 AM EDT, and I am enormously excited for what we as Americans will witness tomorrow. I'm spending all day today reading as much content as I can to make me better informed about these two Senators of utmost character, so that I can proudly cast my second-ever presidential vote for one of these men tomorrow morning.
Before offering some of my personal feelings about tomorrow, I want to post some of the really well-written newspaper endorsements that I have come across in the last few hours. *Note: The Obama endorsements that I have posted are coming from newspapers that endorsed George Bush in 2004, and the McCain ones are coming from newspapers who endorsed John Kerry, just so I can avoid appearing biased in my selections.
**Though I MUST post this endorsement from The Economist, the British economics/current affairs magazine. It obviously can't carry too much weight since they are not involved in our political process, but I am taken aback by how noble it is. It carries a lot of weight for me, because I think it's important for Americans to remember that this election has globe-spanning following. The entire world is going to be watching OUR news channels tomorrow, because they have been just as captivated by the election as we have, and they recognize that when a new American President is chosen, that man becomes the de facto leader of the free world, and so they have every right to want to express how they see our election, and frankly, The Economist is about as big as it gets in international news, aside from say the BBC. If I happen to come across opinions from other parts of the world, I will certainly put them on here, but until then, read this now.
The Denver Post says Obama is "better equipped to lead America into a more prosperous future" ... Kind of an odd editorial, but Colorado is an important electoral state
The Chicago Tribune says Obama would be more of a centered pragmatist than people think, and govern aptly.
The Houston Chronicle says Obama appears to posses the tools to confront our myriad and daunting problems.
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McCain Endorsements
The Virginia Daily Press says Obama's hopeful message of change, when subjected to the glare of factual light, pales in comparison to Senator McCain's experience message.
The Detroit News (I didn't remember that they *didn't* endorse anyone in '04, but apparently that's the case) says "McCain can lead in uncertain times" ... I guess I posted this since I'm surprised ANY Michigan papers endorsed McCain after he gave up on all of us
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Those are all the non-Bush papers I could find. It's appropriate though, because Obama's endorsement tally is about double McCain's (273-142 as of today).
I'll make this short. I have every confidence in the world that Obama will be a great president. McCain will make a great president,too Why couldn't they have been on the same ticket?
This election has been about ideas and about the men. Not the political parties or who has the most skeletons in their closet. Both Obama and McCain have character marks against them, but they are both good men. For much of the election, McCain was the better man, and Obama was the better politician, but they've swapped roles for the final stretch: McCain tried the very smear politics that killed his 2000 bid, and Obama coolly deflected McCain's rantings. Watching any McCain rally in the last few months, has been agony for those who admired McCain's original appeal. He came off as a bad comedian or MC checking to see if his mic was on cause noone got his joke. Except in McCain's world now, his supporters cheer patriotism and boo the very utterance of Senator Obama's name. When that crazy old lady looked McCain in the eye and said, "Obama is an Arab," McCain let his old self come out, and came to the defense of his rival, amid jeers from his own crowd. I looked at his mannerisms, and saw a worn-out, honest politician who is frantically trying to bail out of a sinking ship, and he has done admirably in unshackling himself from a lot of that waterweight. McCain most certainly has welcome new ideas for an old and tired Washington circle, but he has so much political baggage with him, it is a difficult choice.
Senator McCain's ideas are far different than George W. Bush's, and, were he to have just campaigned on those instead of resorting to the campaign tactics of his former rival, he would still be the better man. Senator McCain has some of the most progressive ideas on energy I have ever seen out of a Republican, but they have nearly vanished in the presence of his biggest political baggage: Governor Palin. McCain has ideas for investing in every avenue of green technology, and pressing automobile companies to develop a fuel cell automobile, and replacing transportation fuel sources, as well as converting the U.S. power grid to a carbon-neutral power grid with nuclear power. Obama has failed to elaborate on any of his energy ideas, and Senator Biden knows nothing about creating jobs, only how to take them away by befriending banks and lawyers who lobby him on his chair in the Senate Finance Committee.
I'm convinced Governor Palin is not a maverick or even a politician...she was McCain's cop-out to the Republican base and his ace-in-the-hole against a Democratic candidate who had driven away the women's vote. When he looks reporters in the eye and says she is qualified to be Vice President of these United States, I see a closet admission that he screwed up. Were there anyone, anyone at all besides Sarah Palin not named Rudy Giuliani at his side, McCain would be ahead in the polls going into tomorrow. Obama was smart enough to recognize that voters would believe him more with Senator Biden at his side, and plucked one of my favorite Democrats out of the Senate to help him lead this country. That is not a glaring endorsement of Senator Biden's character, however, as Biden has been just as bad a political liability to Obama's campaign as Palin has to McCain's bid. Biden's done fewer interviews, given fewer straight answers, and thrown more mud than Palin has, and that's a reflection upon Obama's lack of control over his campaign. But Obama picked the man who would help him win, not embarrass him. BUT, this is about the top of the ticket, not the bottom. If both Obama and McCain do their job, we won't hear a peep out of either Vice President.
Obama has the ability to lead, even I can recognize that. His ideas are pragmatic, versed, and even progressive. I would have no qualms about voting for him if it weren't for his staunch favoring of a gigantic federal government with no ceiling on spending. Sure, he'll cut your taxes, but in the interest of propping up the middle class, not growth. He is not a friend to the globalization system I study so frequently, and will have to learn that the hard way when 5 million jobs are not created during his first year. He is, however, a smart guy. I'm much more confident in his ability to think logically about a solution than is McCain, even though Senator McCain's foreign policy views, for example, are far more centrist than Bush.
No matter who wins, he's gonna have to strap this country on their back and march us into a better time to be an American. In 1932 Franklin Roosevelt came to the White House on a wave of enthusiasm. He didn't have many clear ideas on what he was going to do for the country, he just knew that he had to try his best to fix it. Not until his second term did he campaign on the New Deal to reinvent an America who's beacon had faded so violently from that city on a hill; the world scoffed at the idea of America as a global leader, with its financial system in ruins and no infrastructure to carry it out of the Industrial Revolution. I'm voting for who I think can offer a 21st Century New Deal, or, Green Deal as it's been called at times, because America isn't in good world standing right now. I recognize, too, that ideological superiority is cyclical, and if the Conservative America begun 40 years ago by Richard Nixon dies an overdue death by the hand of Obama and Biden here in 2008, then I'll stand up and salute them. I can't ignore the historical significance of what is probably going to happen tomorrow, and I confess I want to be a part of it. Voting for McCain is the honorable thing to do, but voting for Obama is the *right* thing to do. Only twice in our history has one party held what's called a "Super Majority" in Washington, and I recognize that Liberalism's time is now, because nothing out of George Bush's America has worked. I want a divided government, but I can't for the life of me pass up the opportunity to help start something exciting. I don't truly believe that Barack Obama will bow to every whim of his fellow Democrats, because that's not fair to what he has preached. He's too smart a guy not to realize that if he is handed our nation's highest office, he's gonna have to work with everyone. I *want* this man to show us what he can do, because if he made it this far, he's done something right. I want this man to have a shot to make America better. There's a reason Joe Biden was picked to help him...Biden has the chance to become possibly the most legendary vice president we've ever seen, because he will have helped an African American President do what 43 white men could not: take America to that next step in our evolution as a country for all the world to admire and take after. McCain is somewhat equipped to do the same, and there's still a chance I may vote for him, but there's a difference between fighting for your country and fighting to make your country better: McCain's Navy life has only made him know how to do the first of those items and a little bit of the latter. He hasn't quite taken that final step to realize there's more at stake here than the fear of higher taxes or the fear of possibly just picking up and leaving a failed nation-building workshop in Baghdad. If I'm gonna vote for Obama, I do it with the belief that he's still the better man, and right now he is. That, and, what the hell, vote for the smart guy with the funny ears :). The Presidency is built on the ability of good and decent men to triumph over evil, and right now that's Barack Obama. He's better equipped to make the American image one for the world to emulate. It's that simple.
Or will I decide the Conservative America lives on, and vote for McCain?
That decision I'm just not ready to make. Dennis Miller of all people said something on "The Tonight Show" recently. He said that no matter which guy wins, he's gonna get behind him and say, "Let's Go." As soon as the election is over, I'm gonna get behind whoever wins, and support them.
President Kennedy's Special Adviser, Ken O'Donnel, once said during the Cuban Misslie Crisis: "If the sun comes up tomorrow, it is only because of men of good will. That is all there is between us and the devil."
If the sun comes up Wednesday morning and Barack Obama is our President, then I made the right choice...
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Now, I ask everyone out there to do what I'm gonna do: Turn off the news channels, get away from the internet news sites, for 24 hours. Make up your own damn mind, don't let anyone tell you who to vote for, just make an informed decision. Wait until 7pm tomorrow to sit back and watch an exciting election night. Don't watch the channel you normally watch, either, watch a new source, and admire that the people on that screen are trying to report on something extraordinary. Me? I'll be lounged on the couch eating pizza, with ABC News on, and occasionally will flip to get a laugh from Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann on MSNBC. Then at 10pm, flip over to Comedy Central to watch Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert live, to laugh about everything we've just witnessed (I swear a commercial earlier said 11 but it is definitely 10).
Prediction: Much too hard to say, but I think it's Obama, but by much closer than a lot of people think. And if McCain wins? Well, then that's a bit of history in itself.
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4 comments:
I know that hypothetical history is for bush league historians, but I can't help but wonder how America would be different if McCain had been our President for the past eight years instead of Bush. I know the Economist touched on this topic, too.
I desperately want to be able to vote for McCain, but the more I wish to vote for him in 2008, the more I realize that I want to vote for him in 2000. McCain didn't stand a good chance this time around to begin with, but the Republican party is carrying so much bad baggage and is run by ignorant cavemen (and cavewomen, can't forget Mrs. Palin).
At the end of the day, I hope and pray that the next president can solve the problems in America and that this election marks the end of Rovian politics.
The last great democratic president told us to ask what we could do for our country. I wonder if movement conservatism has succeeded in stamping out this sense of responsibility to anyone other than oneself. If we are going to solve these issues it's going to take more than good legislation - it's going to take people consciously using less energy, being more fiscally prudent and less prone to consumerism, volunteering to do things like help out in inner cities now, when capital for investments is unavailable and all sorts of other individual choices and actions.
Government can encourage these things but not always enforce. I hope whoever becomes the President-Elect today (tomorrow for me) has the courage to tell the American people that getting our country back on the right track will take some effort on our part as well.
I think you've earned yourself a random comment thread solicitor, Kevin! Unless I read over the part of your post that dealt with issues of women's suffrage and its relevance in modern political discourse. If that is the case, then my apologies to Ms. Virginia Harris!
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