I would vote for Obama. That's easy to say. Why? Not so easy. Let me see...
For a starter, he's Democrat. George W Bush is Republican. That's a good start, anything opposing Bush administration cannot be completely evil. I know it's tough position, but still, does anyone really think he did good job during his two terms? I remember that I wasn't too surprised when he got elected for second term, but now I think most people agree giving him second chance was a very bad move. Even the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, regarding to this CNN article, says "Bush 'a total failure'" That's a quite strong comment from someone at her position.
As I see it, Bush was trying to keep control on the Mid-East oil reserves, and now US Government is paying huge bill keeping that amount of military force active in Iraq. Of course, that bill eventually lands on the American tax payers. That's us, folks. So, as Obama has stated, he wants to withdraw the US forces faster than what the Republicans are planning, that's already good reason to go for Obama.
Even though I do read both local, US and world news quite frequently, I cannot tell too many differences for Obama and his rival, John McCain. I guess that's their strategy anyway, to be average enough, so that they get lof of Average Joe votes, because that's what this country is full of. Of course, big portion of people will vote for their favourite party nominee, no matter who happens to be there this year. But those who have not decided yet, I'm sure they both will do anything to get those votes.
The good thing for me, all the polls currently indicate that Obama will win with about 6-8% margin. So unless something critical happens, I'm quite confident. I'm looking forward for the first public TV debate between the nominees. I think if Obama clears that one, it's all downhill for McCain after that.
Then what about Hillary Clinton. Would I have voted her instead if she was the nominee. I think so. Well, actually no, but for reason I will tell you later. I think, or actually I assume, she has very similar political views about the war and such as Obama, so I'm sure she'd have made as good candidate as Obama is now. Too bad her record got small dent as she kept on fighting at the primaries. It would have been much more graceful to forfeit the victory somewhere around January-February. Or even March would have been nice, but June was just bad. But she made good fight, got lot of votes, so I think she's a good running mate for Obama, even though their bitter battle for the nomination.
So there's the war issue, but what else. The dollar has been downhill for past several years, and there's the subprime crisis, mortgages are changing into foreclosures, and there's even credit card crisis looming in the horizon. I'm not just sure if the one to blame is Bush, or FED. You know, FED kept the interest rates unbelieveably low, just to keep the economy running. On some cases, that's good. But if you keep on doing that, in the end it will backfire. Now there's millions of people who just have too much mortgage, loans, credit cards, everything. And the economy is slowing, which means many of those people just can't pay their bills. It's not goint to be a happy ending for many people. I know, people should be responsible for their own actions, but I'd also point out towards the banking institutes, for giving out such cheap loans so easily for people who really don't look like they can affor it. And then the home equity loans, taken against increased home value. Too bad, the economy slowing and crisis hitting, the prices fell down far from the full amount it was few years ago.
In the end, I don't have too many reason why I would vote Obama, but at the current situation, it just seems foolish to let another Republican in. I guess it's unfair for Obama to be the one to clean up the mess Bush is leaving behind, but someone has to do it. I'm afraid it's going to be political suicide for him, and he's not getting to the second term. But someone else from Democratic party might be after him, so I'm not so worried. Maybe Hillary will continue after him, who knows. In some sense, it would be rightful for Republicans to clean up their own mess, but if McCain is the next president, I'm not sure if there would be still too bad mess after his first 4 years. I guess even if Obama doesn't get to second term, he'll keep on doing something similar what Al Gore has been up to for recent years. That doesn't sound too bad. I could do that. I'll tell people the green house effect is bad, and we should stop polluting before it's too late. Then back up that with some scientific research. Easy, if you have enough political leverage. So I guess I'll leave that for Gore and Obama.
But the reason why I don't vote for Obama, or I wouldn't vote for Clinton if she was the nomiee. I'm not citizen, so I cannot vote. I'm here with work visa, and unless I get green card for some reason, like diversity lottery, I'm not able to vote in the future either. I guess if I can get even one person to change to Obama, I can count his/her vote as mine.
Well, good luck for Obama, best wishes. I hope he can clear out the mess.
