Why I'm Voting For Obama
Nov. 3rd, 2008 11:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
webfarmerComes down to a few simple items.
1. Energy - McCain's over reliance on "drill, baby, drill" domestic oil development schemes and nuclear power that are both inadequate in quantity, too late in development and are overly costly vs. the alternatives. His historic disregard for supporting the development and implementation of renewables is a big thumbs down for me. Conversely, Obama seems to get energy policy in the Amory Lovin's way.
2. The Supremes - I don't think an ideologically lopsided Supreme court is a good idea. They can't be voted out like politicians. If McCain put in some young Scalia wannabes one-third of the federal government would be locked up for a generation or two.
3. Health Insurance - McCain's modest tweaks of the current system wouldn't get the job done for me. I got stranded, after decades of paying premiums, by Mutual of Omaha as they got away with dumping the whole lot of their customers when they got out of the business. I'm sure it worked out very well for them but all of us folks who were older and/or had pre-existing conditions were completely hosed.
Unless something is done about pre-existing conditions, like Obama's suggestion of national pools, I'm pretty much screwed without starting up work for an organization that provides decent health insurance. I'd prefer not to have to take a job just for the insurance benefits but this year might be the last for me to go independent. I had to go to school just to qualify for my current health care plan. A student plan being used by a 50 something old guy. There's something major wrong with that.
4. Negative Campaigning - I know that the team that's behind usually has to go negative to catch up. But there are degrees of these things and the Republicans, and in particular the McCain camp, have gone over the line repeatedly. The Obama pals around with terrorists and and the latest implying that he's an anti-Semite are the move too far. The whole pitch about "honor" starts to ring pretty hollow when your side is up to that kind of business.
The local Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate (Kleeb) will probably lose because he refused to go negative against a fairly high positives long time Republican politician (Johanns). No such problems with the McCain crew and frankly a lot of other Republican candidates in this neck of the woods. They are running William Ayers commercials against a local Democratic Regent candidate now along with bringing in stuff completely unrelated to the position of the regent. Hey, that irrelevant, but effective, tactic worked for Sarah Palin in her run for mayor of Wassila so why not for a Republican regent candidate in Nebraska. In Palin's instance, it was gun control.
5. The Economy - McCain has said that he'll balance the budget in four years. That's patent nonsense given the debt we've got racked up, the recession we're going into and the tax cuts that he's proposing. You can't get there from here. Obama has said he'd cut taxes for those making $250,000 or less. That would be me again.
6. Social Security - Obama wants to raise the cap on social security taxes as a way of balancing the books. That seems as good a way as any to me. That cap should also be indexed to inflation as should minimum wages.
1. Energy - McCain's over reliance on "drill, baby, drill" domestic oil development schemes and nuclear power that are both inadequate in quantity, too late in development and are overly costly vs. the alternatives. His historic disregard for supporting the development and implementation of renewables is a big thumbs down for me. Conversely, Obama seems to get energy policy in the Amory Lovin's way.
2. The Supremes - I don't think an ideologically lopsided Supreme court is a good idea. They can't be voted out like politicians. If McCain put in some young Scalia wannabes one-third of the federal government would be locked up for a generation or two.
3. Health Insurance - McCain's modest tweaks of the current system wouldn't get the job done for me. I got stranded, after decades of paying premiums, by Mutual of Omaha as they got away with dumping the whole lot of their customers when they got out of the business. I'm sure it worked out very well for them but all of us folks who were older and/or had pre-existing conditions were completely hosed.
Unless something is done about pre-existing conditions, like Obama's suggestion of national pools, I'm pretty much screwed without starting up work for an organization that provides decent health insurance. I'd prefer not to have to take a job just for the insurance benefits but this year might be the last for me to go independent. I had to go to school just to qualify for my current health care plan. A student plan being used by a 50 something old guy. There's something major wrong with that.
4. Negative Campaigning - I know that the team that's behind usually has to go negative to catch up. But there are degrees of these things and the Republicans, and in particular the McCain camp, have gone over the line repeatedly. The Obama pals around with terrorists and and the latest implying that he's an anti-Semite are the move too far. The whole pitch about "honor" starts to ring pretty hollow when your side is up to that kind of business.
The local Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate (Kleeb) will probably lose because he refused to go negative against a fairly high positives long time Republican politician (Johanns). No such problems with the McCain crew and frankly a lot of other Republican candidates in this neck of the woods. They are running William Ayers commercials against a local Democratic Regent candidate now along with bringing in stuff completely unrelated to the position of the regent. Hey, that irrelevant, but effective, tactic worked for Sarah Palin in her run for mayor of Wassila so why not for a Republican regent candidate in Nebraska. In Palin's instance, it was gun control.
5. The Economy - McCain has said that he'll balance the budget in four years. That's patent nonsense given the debt we've got racked up, the recession we're going into and the tax cuts that he's proposing. You can't get there from here. Obama has said he'd cut taxes for those making $250,000 or less. That would be me again.
6. Social Security - Obama wants to raise the cap on social security taxes as a way of balancing the books. That seems as good a way as any to me. That cap should also be indexed to inflation as should minimum wages.
