I have laid out the case for why I am voting for Barack Obama in as much detail as I could muster. I think there’s a lot of room for disagreement and healthy discussion on the issues, and wanted to be specific as to what my support for Obama is based on (not just the “D” after his name alone). I freely confess that I am biased towards Democrats in general, but that bias is effect, not cause, of my principles and beliefs and positions on the issues, and they form the basis of my judgement here. I do hope someone else makes a similar detailedcase for support of McCain in response because I think these are useful.
It’s not directly relevant, but I think this earlier essay of mine, reflecting on what 9-11 and the 2000 election portended for America from a civic perspective, is useful in providing some context to my worldview.
If you agree with me that Barack Obama is the change we need, then please join me in making a small contribution to his campaign:
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I can’t give you a case of why I will vote for McCain except for the fact of voting against Obama.
Although it has much to do with the D next to his name, as I am a Republican because of my principles, beliefs and positions (except for the death penalty), it also has much to do with his voting record, and what he says as much as what he doesn’t say.
I do not believe he is the "change" we need as whoever becomes president will be handcuffed for the first 4 years. So basically the first 4 will by de facto be an extension of the Bush presidency. McCain is not the "change" we need either. I’m not even sure that we need any "change". What we need is to toss out everyone and start from scratch.
I certainly know what you mean – in 2004 I was voting more against Bush than for Kerry. My preference was Dean, by far.
For the most part I think you have to be very areful about voting records. Given that bills are complex entities that often bundle numerous things together, you have to be very careful about saying "He voted against bill X; Bill X contained Y; therefore he is against Y" because often Y was utterly irrelevant to why they voted. Applying that standard anyway, you basically would need for everyone to vote for everything to avoid any hint of accidentally being seen as against/for Y. You cannot divine a politician’s stance on the issues that accurately from how they vote, only generally. Whats far mroe useful is a record fo what bills the candidate has *sponsored*.
Aziz:
Let’s check back in in two or three years and see how you feel about that vote when we see what the REAL Obama says and does as President compared to what the carefully cultivated media image is saying and doing now.
I am convinced they are as different as night and day. And I am further convinced that the “real” Obama is the one that exists in his scant but revealing voting record, and in his choice of whom to associate with, not in his current campaign rhetoric.
You are voting for a socialist Aziz, and one who finds no problem workign and partying with the most radical elements on the Left. Just so you know. Not that it matters. Yet.
CosmicConservative’s last blog post..Leftist logic?
Aziz,
I mean no disrespect, but it seems a little crass to stump here on Dean’s blog for donations for the Obama campaign but make us go to another blog to read your piece on why we should support him.
If you want Dean’s World readers to support Obama financially, then your article about why we should needs to be here.
re: the earlier essay. I found it revealing that Aziz is (was?) so sure of the Republican response had Gore won in 2000 and how vitriolic it would have been. I can’t help but wonder if this is some sort of wishful projection, given the Democrats behavior subsequent behavior.
But I did like the second half of that post.
As for the case for Obama, well, I think a tour through Chicago and some of the areas directly affected by Obama’s “change” may suggest something other than a great reformist coming to office. I’ve yet to see anything to suggest he is anymore than just another politician.
The best thing I can about McCain is that he is not Obama, so looks like I will find something better to do than vote on 11/4….. such as change the air in my tires.
Aziz, what are you doing on Beliefnet — a religion issues site —
peddling your politics ?
Never mind.
I’m Voting For McCain/Palin
Donate ? That’s laughable.
The notion that Obama is short on campaign money is ridiculous.
Obama certainly seems to be getting enough money from a Good Will and his foreign non-citizen friends, doesn’t he McK?
Elisha Feger’s last blog post..Comcast >:E
Kevin, I fail to really see the difference. It’s not like I have – ahem – closed the comment thread or anything.
CC, I agree, Obama may turn out to be something completely different than what he advertised. President Bush certainly hasn’t governed the way he promised he would, so there is precedent (remember candidate Bush’s statement against nation-building?). Presidents are not candidates, they learn, grow, and evolve. I dispute the notion that Bush, Obama or anyone else is an active liar with an agenda that they hide until elected, however. That’s too cynical for my taste, and anywa most people who have such cynicism only excercize it on one side of the political aisle. I take politicians at face value, with no illusions about the limits of their promises.
I am not sealing my vote in 2012 ahead of time. I am a free agent, I can vote for whomeever I wish. If I am displeased with Obama for some reason, for example if he turns out to be a genuine socialist instead of the moderate liberal that his issues platform and stump speech indicate, then I will take that into account. Of course, what you consider socialism is different from what I would. I don’t think that universal, single-payer health care is even remotely anything akin to socialism, let alone the much more modest health care agenda that Obama has laid out (which preserves the health care market, and lets you choose your insurer, and your doctor, and relies on market competitive forces to help control costs). I am relieved to note that Obama has not proposed anything as mind-bogglingly socialist as outright government ownership and bailout of consumer mortgages – if I were really trying to vote for the least socialist candidate, McCain doesn’t exactly come out ahead. I also realize that some people define socialism as "anything short of pure laissez-faire unrestrained capitalsm" and from both a moral and a fiscal standpoint I have absolutely no faith in such market-purist theories. The free market has power, but it has no soul, and regulation is a necessary check and balance.
Oddly, CC you refer to Obama’s voting record as "scant" but I’ve reviewed the same record you (presumably) have and I find his performance to be quite acceptable and not deficient by any reasonable definition I would employ. So let’s agree to disagree. Surely though it is better that my assessment of Obama is more correct, for the good of the country, right?
McK, have you heard f Rod Dreher? Jim Wallis? Beliefnet isnt just prayer circles. I was explicitly encouraged to post on political issues by my editor.
Yes, Aziz, Rod Dreher is a disgruntled, former Catholic who has moved on to other agendas.
So it no surprise, you were encouraged to post on political issues.
Thank you for the information. It certainly informs from the viewpoint toward editorial bias on Beliefnet.
Frankly, Aziz, you don’t make much of a case for Obama. You state a lot of things YOU believe, but most of them contain nothing that says Obama either agrees, or would implement policy that supports YOUR belief. One of the few exceptions surprised me. I expected to see something along the lines of "I believe everyone should have affordable access to health care". Which, for the vast majority of people is already true. You didn’t say that, but the simple fact is, whatever your belief about health care, the socialized health care systems in the world suggest that idea is a flat loser. Universal health care may provide access for the small minority of the population that don’t already have it, but it will significantly degrade the quality of health care for everyone else AND make it more expensive along the way. Will you and I pay more ? Not directly, but taxes are going WAY WAY up to support universal health care.Â
Odd that you point us to a link about Obama’s reforming ways and accomplishments, but can’t take the 30 seconds you would need to list even a couple of them.Â
I tend to agree with Dean when he has said before that it’s unlikely that any president will be as bad as people make him out to be, so we would surely survive an Obama presidency, but it will be a single term and the economy will be in ruins when he is done.
Political free agent. That’s a good one. Voted for Kerry, but would have voted for Howard Dean. And planning to vote for Obama. You can claim you want us to be purple, but you are about as dark blue as it gets.Â
Free agent indeed.
Aziz, I’m genuinely agonizing over my choice of whom to vote for this year. I am not liberal. I am not conservative. I am not ideological and am cautious about those who are.
Neither Sen. Obama nor Sen. McCain are much to my taste. From a foreign policy standpoint I think that Sen. Obama, like many Americans, is best described as an isolationist. Fortunately, should he be elected, conditions won’t allow him to give full rein to his reflexes in this regard.
Sen. McCain subscribes to a view of national greatness akin to Teddy Roosevelt’s of which I’m even more distrustful.Â
While I think that Sen. McCain’s economic views don’t go much beyond a belief in the magic of markets, Sen. Obama’s are woefully obsolete.
The greatest problem I have with Sen. Obama is that as I see it all of his great successes in his adult life are in being elected to office rather than serving in office. He’s done remarkably little in nearly 50 years other than run successful election campaigns.
I found your piece at <i>Nation Building</i> long on blind faith and short on practical realities. Perhaps I’m being unfair.Â
I find it very hard to vote for Sen. McCain but what I’m being given as reasons to vote for Sen. Obama are promises of wonderful things yet to come.
Dave, with regards to Obama’s record, this compilation should give you more data. I dont think the record is thin at all, in fact hes quite an accomplished legislator for his brief time in service – and that brief time is a feature, not a bug, he hasnt ossified into a careerist, chasing after the status quo.
with regards to foreign policy, Obama is the opposite of an isolationist, he is in fact an interventionist, and his pick of Biden is almost emtirely driven by that worldview. The far-left liberals are going to howl when they realizse that Obama wont be withdrawing all that many troops from Iraq after all, and will beincreasing te military size and drasticlaly upscalinmg the troop contingent in Iraq. But his answer to teh question of when to send troops for "non national security" missions abroad in teh second debate was also very instructive – check out teh transcript and see for yourself.
At any rate, suppose I really am taking this all on faith and, despite my copious linkage, really taking Obama on faith rather than evidence. Is it so wrong to take a risk for something better, than to settle for something worse? The biggest critique that conservatives made in 2004 was that liberals were voting against Bush, but didnt have a forward vision of their own. Well, that vision has arrived, and now we are being critiqued for voting the vision. Meanwhile, its suddenly okay for conservatives (see everyone upthread) to vote against Obama rather than being for McCain. Well, I’m not ashamed of having faith in the system, or feeling like this campaign has given me ownership of the political process. I take Obama at his word, een though I am practical about teh constraints he will face when taking office. I’d rather his rhetoric be as high as possible, so that when teh compromise comes, it’s still somewhere above "just good enough". If we are all wrong about Obama, and he is a liar, and a socialist, and every other bad word in the political lexicon, then we vote him out in 2012. Its not like he can be worse than the experiment of the past eight years, anyway.
BTW, If you really feel Obama is a cipher, and an unacomplished politician, then I recommend you read this new indepth and eye-opening profile on him in the WaPo.
 Aziz, God bless you!Â
You are thinking about the big issues, and doing what you think is best.  And you have the balls to publicly talk about it. We need more of that!Â
Of course, I think you are wrong, wrong, wrong, on many of your conclusions. But that’s just my opinion, and I’m not even going to argue about this stuff.
We each have one vote in November, and that’s what matters most.Â
It’s hard to remember during the crazy election season, but in the big picture, we all have probably 98% of our goals and desires in common.
“Obama is the opposite of an isolationist, he is in fact an interventionistâ€
He may be, but <a href="http://www.butiamaliberal.com/2008/10/why-obama-doctrine-stinks.html">not a terribly committed one</a>.
roland dodds’s last blog post..McCain’s Mortgage Plan
thanks, jay – but i dont think i have any more cojones than the rest of y’all. Ego, maybe :)
Part of my rationale for laying out my case was precisely to spur others to do the same in disagreement. I think we are all done with arguing, but that doesn’t mean I dont want to read what your rationales are. Its helpful in formulatig, revising, and strengthening my own positions for me to read yours. If you think Im wrong, its good for me to see what yoru counterarguments are.
[deadrody] Voted for Kerry, but would have voted for Howard Dean. And planning to vote for Obama. You can claim you want us to be purple, but you are about as dark blue as it gets.
[jaymaster] It’s hard to remember during the crazy election season, but in the big picture, we all have probably 98% of our goals and desires in common.
agreed, jaymaster. In fact the above is what I mean by "purple politics" – not some stupid attempt to support red or blue candidates half the time each in some pursuit of balance, but the recognition that the end goals are very much alike. I vote Blue, almost all the time nowadays, but that doesnt lessen the purple-ness of my intent. I also know many people who vote solidly Red, but who are also purple. This is a subtle point often lost on partisans.
‘Purple’ is the way to go. Once Red starts seeing Blue win elections on a ‘Purple’ strategy you’ll see Red turn a little bit more purple. That’s a good thing.
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