why I voted for Obama
I had planned on writing up this brilliant essay worthy of publication in a respected newspaper (or at least the AJC), but instead I pounded this out in the last half hour or so. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go to my second job so I can afford to feed my dog.
John McCain was right in the second debate when he said we need a steady hand at the tiller; unfortunately for him, over the course of this year, Barack Obama has proven to have a much steadier hand than McCain. Obama has remained cool, calm, and collected despite everything thrown at him, whether from the Clintons in the spring or the Republicans in the summer and fall. And when catastrophe hit the financial markets, it was Obama who kept his wits about him while McCain "suspended" his campaign and filled his camera time with sturm und drang.
Throughout the campaign, Barack Obama has held a consistent vision and a persistent mantra, and he has surrounded himself with an organization built to put his vision to work. We have watched him think through difficult decisions and parse quagmires of diplomacy and entrenched institutions. It's about time this country had a President willing to think before acting, someone who will look past the immediate decision to future consequences of his actions.
I know Obama doesn't have the hands on experience we would like in a President, but I do believe he has the judgment and temperament for the job. When I see how quick McCain is to leap into action without forethought, I wonder if he's forgotten all of his experience. What good is experience if you're not willing to put it to work for you? Unlike the last inexperienced man to become President, Obama has chosen his advisers wisely. In the coming years, in a landscape so different than what any of us has seen in our lifetimes, I choose wisdom over experience.
This is not the same John McCain I could have voted for in 2000. Even during this year's primaries, I was willing to vote for McCain. But not now. He chose to sell his soul to the basest instincts of the Republican Party to win this election. He named an "agent of intolerance" to be his running mate after vowing to defeat them back in 2000. By choosing Sarah Palin, he accepted the yoke of religious intolerance and would force it on the entire country. I can't vote for a man so willing to push the morals of a vocal majority onto the people he fought to protect all those years ago.
I don't think John McCain would be a third term of George W Bush. Not entirely. But his honor will require him to reward the far right base of his party for their votes and money, and this country can't afford another four years of that. We can't afford four years scared to death of what wacky maverick scheme McCain comes up with next.
We need a steady hand on the tiller. We need someone with vision and forethought, someone whose brain is better equipped to deal with the new century, not because they're any better than anyone else but because that's just the way they're wired. Barack Obama is more a part of this century than the last. He is better able to reinvigorate America's previously steadfast alliances and forge new ones with future powers and partners. I'm afraid for all his experience, John McCain is still stuck in the Cold War. We don't need to be refighting a war we've already won..
I know it's corny, but a vote for Barack Obama is vote for hope in the future. We know what we'll get with John McCain: the same wars, the same fears we should have defeated long ago. I'd rather take a chance on hope than live in fear.
John McCain was right in the second debate when he said we need a steady hand at the tiller; unfortunately for him, over the course of this year, Barack Obama has proven to have a much steadier hand than McCain. Obama has remained cool, calm, and collected despite everything thrown at him, whether from the Clintons in the spring or the Republicans in the summer and fall. And when catastrophe hit the financial markets, it was Obama who kept his wits about him while McCain "suspended" his campaign and filled his camera time with sturm und drang.
Throughout the campaign, Barack Obama has held a consistent vision and a persistent mantra, and he has surrounded himself with an organization built to put his vision to work. We have watched him think through difficult decisions and parse quagmires of diplomacy and entrenched institutions. It's about time this country had a President willing to think before acting, someone who will look past the immediate decision to future consequences of his actions.
I know Obama doesn't have the hands on experience we would like in a President, but I do believe he has the judgment and temperament for the job. When I see how quick McCain is to leap into action without forethought, I wonder if he's forgotten all of his experience. What good is experience if you're not willing to put it to work for you? Unlike the last inexperienced man to become President, Obama has chosen his advisers wisely. In the coming years, in a landscape so different than what any of us has seen in our lifetimes, I choose wisdom over experience.
This is not the same John McCain I could have voted for in 2000. Even during this year's primaries, I was willing to vote for McCain. But not now. He chose to sell his soul to the basest instincts of the Republican Party to win this election. He named an "agent of intolerance" to be his running mate after vowing to defeat them back in 2000. By choosing Sarah Palin, he accepted the yoke of religious intolerance and would force it on the entire country. I can't vote for a man so willing to push the morals of a vocal majority onto the people he fought to protect all those years ago.
I don't think John McCain would be a third term of George W Bush. Not entirely. But his honor will require him to reward the far right base of his party for their votes and money, and this country can't afford another four years of that. We can't afford four years scared to death of what wacky maverick scheme McCain comes up with next.
We need a steady hand on the tiller. We need someone with vision and forethought, someone whose brain is better equipped to deal with the new century, not because they're any better than anyone else but because that's just the way they're wired. Barack Obama is more a part of this century than the last. He is better able to reinvigorate America's previously steadfast alliances and forge new ones with future powers and partners. I'm afraid for all his experience, John McCain is still stuck in the Cold War. We don't need to be refighting a war we've already won..
I know it's corny, but a vote for Barack Obama is vote for hope in the future. We know what we'll get with John McCain: the same wars, the same fears we should have defeated long ago. I'd rather take a chance on hope than live in fear.