Why I Am Supporting Barack Obama to be President of the USA August 2008

 
 

• Barack Obama believes women are smart enough to make choices for themselves regarding their reproduction and pregnancies, whereas John McCain wants to the USA to be like China, where the government makes those decisions for women.

• Barack Obama knows how many houses he owns, whereas John McCain isn't sure how many homes he has (is it five or seven, Senator McCain?).

• Barack Obama knows how to pull together a team of reliable, knowledgable people who put the needs of the people they serve first, much in the style of Bill Clinton, where as John McCain has surrounded himself with former lobbyists for causes and companies I very much oppose.

• Barack Obama is a patriot through his public service to the USA.

• Barack Obama has always had to work hard to support himself and his family; he doesn't know what it's like to not have to worry about how to pay the bills. That means he's much more in touch with what American families face than John McCain.

• Barack Obama wants to really support the troops in all the ways the Bush administration and McCain never have; he wants them to have much better access to education and health care. John McCain doesn't want to change things regarding how veterans are treated.

• Barack Obama will make appointments to the US Supreme Court based on judicial competence and proven respect for constitutional law, and will avoid appointments of people who are dedicated to taking away a woman's right to choose abortion. John McCain will appoint judges who are dedicated to restricting women's access to abortion -- it's one of his state priorities.

• Health care for every American is a much, much higher priority in Barack Obama's goals for the country than among the goals of John McCain (who rarely, if ever, talks about it)

• Barack Obama supports civil unions for gay couples; I am a person who married but does NOT intend to have children and, therefore, the attacks by right wingers on gay unions has all applied to me as well, and that really, really frightens me.

• I believe Barack Obama cares about the environment and cleaner energy sources much, much more than John McCain

• I believe that Barack Obama will hugely improve the image of the USA in the world, whereas John McCain will further damage that image. I believe Barack Obama as President will mean that Americans abroad don't have to be scared of revealing their nationality.

• I believe Barack Obama will implement economic policies that will benefit everyone, not just special interests or rich people.

• I believe Barack Obama is what's best for the United States of America, much more-so -- MUCH MORESO -- than John McCain.

• I strongly believe Barack Obama has the experience and judgement to be President.

I waffled back and forth during the primary between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. I hadn't intended on supporting Hillary, because of her lackluster performance as a Senator, her rare opposition to Bush before she started running for President, and her support of the invasion of Iraq, but I was so outraged at the sexist insults Rev. Wright and other Obama supporters said about her, and how she was characterized and criticized in the press based solely on her being a female candidate (rather than, oh, say, her record), that I found myself doing so.

But Hillary lost. She's out. And neither Howard Dean nor Al Gore are running (they'll always be my first choice). So I now support Barack Obama for President of the USA, for all the reasons I've stated. He has my vote.

If you want four more years of George Bush, by all means, go with McCain.

(and would you freakin' get OVER that Obama's middle name is Hussein?! Yes, that's Arabic. It means "Good Boy" or "Good Looking Boy" or "Handsome Boy." His first name, Barack, is a form of the Hebrew name Baruch. Yeah Hebrew. You know - Jewish?)

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The personal opinions expressed on this page are solely those of Ms. Cravens, unless otherwise noted.