This post is a result of a letter sent to The Huntsville Times by a writer asking for an Obama supporter to tell him why they support this candidate. Since Letter #2 did not get printed (I may have sent it in too close to the first one) I reworked that letter and this is the result. For any of you who may be on the fence, I hope this helps clarify things for you.
In Thursday, October 16, 2008 Letters to the Editor, Mr. Igor Gerhardt asked to hear from those voting for Barack Obama for the reason they are supporting him over John McCain. Okay, I’ll bite…
Barack Obama’s resume includes:
• President of the Harvard Law Review.
• As a community organizer he created voter registration drives that registered 150,000 voters.
• Twelve years as a Constitutional Law professor.
• Eight years as a State Senator.
• Chairman, Illinois Senate’s Health and Human Services committee.
• Four years in the US Senate where he sponsored more than 100 bills and served on Foreign Affairs, Environmental, Public Works and Veteran’s Affairs Committees.
• Organized a summit with leading economic advisors from both sides to discuss the nation’s current economic crisis. They all came.
As to his plans as the next President:
• Barack Obama will offer tax cuts to families making less than $250k, while McCain continues cuts only benefiting the top 2% in income. The breakdown of what you pay/save for both candidates’ tax plans was included Sunday’s Parade Magazine. Under Obama 95% of Americans would pay fewer taxes.
• McCain relies on Phil Gramm for economic policy-the architect of banking deregulation which has brought us to this point, including four million Americans facing foreclosure.
• Barack Obama’s plan includes a $3000 tax credit for each new job created in America. Unlike current plans which never prevented companies from giving monies from tax breaks to CEO’s and allowed companies to spend their cash overseas.
• Barack Obama will negotiate with other countries in a global economy.
• Barack Obama will rebuild our infrastructure and keep American jobs in America.
• Barack Obama supports renewable energy sources and offers incentives to support those technologies-not limited to offshore drilling. McCain, was against offshore drilling until he received a HUGE campaign contribution from the Hess Corporation.
I cannot support a candidate who constantly “cheer leads” about our troops going off to war and doesn’t vote for Veteran’s benefits because they are “too generous” (GI Bill 2008). McCain doesn’t realize that not every vet can come home and dump their current wife for a multi-millionaire beer heiress. Only after it became clear that there were enough Senate votes to override a Presidential veto did McCain endorse the bill. Unfortunately, it still did not warrant his attention-both Obama and Clinton left their primary campaigns to return to DC to vote. McCain did not.
McCain can’t even stand up to his own party to select the VP he wanted-Joe Lieberman. McCain continues to denigrate this election with lies, smears and distortions unbecoming of his own reputation. John McCain’s entire persona is wrapped in war, so guess what his priorities will be!
Please don’t mistake tough talk of war and provocation as “leadership.” Please don’t accept balloons, flag waving and cheers as “support for our troops.” Our soldiers and our country deserve better. The fact that Barack Obama is bi-racial, signaling a change in race relations in this country (finally!) and how the world sees us is just a bonus.
