Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Obama or McCain or ???



I've been sitting this election out from the comment side, but this is "the life and thoughts of a Midwest geek."

Most of my friends attempt to pigeon hole me politically. My conservative friends call me a liberal and my liberal friends call me a conservative. I tend to think of myself as a little l libertarian.

I'm finding this election season very disappointing. The partisanship is extra rhetorical much of the talk from either side is just...[holding back bad words].

I'd like to pose a challenge to those of you that are decided in your candidate. I'm still a bit undecided on a candidate and need your help. I'd like to know why I should vote for your candidate of choice, but I do have some rules.
  1. At no time can you give a reason FOR your candidate is because he's NOT the other guy.
  2. A reason for your candidate can NOT be a bad thing about the other candidate.
  3. Please describe for me the plan, in detail. I don't want to hear, "He's gonna fix social security" or "He's going to cut taxes" - Hell, I can say that...can I be prez?
  4. If you have supporting details...share them! MoveOn.org and Rush Limbaugh are NOT sources accepted...let's be real here. I like sources that aren't, by definition, slanted.
  5. If you get uncivilized in your comment...you will be deleted. If you link to a post (perfectly acceptable response to this challenge) and that post is distasteful, you will be deleted. Name calling will not be tolerated. Please refer to here and here and here.
So there you have it. This is your chance to help me become less undecided. As you can tell, I want to make my decision based on who is ACTUALLY the best candidate. I like logic and reason. I'm a pragmatist and I vote.

17 comments:

Mr Lady said...

Here's my thing:

I disagree with Obama on taxes. I like John's plan better, and I will get CRUCIFIED for saying that, but there it is.

However, I agree with Obama on health care. I LIVE socialized healthcare, and it is the one reason I will NOT return to the US until they drag me back in screaming. Our healthcare system is corrupt, flawed, and big business. When I was a single mom, an insanely low income mom, I still did not qualify for gov't assistance because my drunk husband in another country made too much money, and since we were "married", his income counted. My son went a YEAR without asthma meds. He stopped breathing twice. I had to pull a "Signs" move with him TWICE. My daughter stopped breathing at 13 months. I got a $3000 ER bill for a night of oxygen.

That is ridiculous. That was 3 months income for me, for ONE NIGHT.

Here, my medications, the SAME medications, without insurance even, cost 1/3 what they do in the states. Here, my kid stops breathing, he gets treated. PERIOD. Most European nations have some sort of national health care. It's not an outrageous idea, and it can work. I pay about 8% more in taxes than I did in the states, that's IT, and I have free health care.

I believe in a woman's right to choose. I believe the next Court appt will decide the fate of Roe V Wade, and though I think it is flawed, it's all we've got as woman. I will fight to keep it in place, and so will Obama.

I am against drilling in the Artic. I am against the US pushing it's way into Canada to drill, to lay pipe through, and to lay claim to land that is NOT theirs. Y'all don't hear too much about that, but I assure you, we do up here. The US has it's eye on a huge chunk of land that they have no right to for oil, and Obama will not try to take hold of it.

I am so totally against school vouchers, you don't even know. I won't bore you with the details, and I am no expert, but I was the president of a low income city elementary school, and I know a little something about this one. In my opinion, vouchers will not only fail, they will CRUSH communities. Obama does not support vouchers for schools.

I'll leave you with that, because damn, I just hogged your comment box.

OhCaptain said...

Very interesting points MrLady.

I work in for a large health care organization. I understand completely both sides of the argument. This is a very tough and very complicated issue in my book. I've also watched these people take a simple system like Social Security and turn it into a steaming pile of poo.

As a libertarian, I believe the government has no right to interfere with any of our decisions.

I have friends in Canada (look in the mirror :-) & other...I'm from Minnesota, don'tcha know), I worry about the pipelines. I also don't believe we can drill our way to energy freedom.

School vouchers do blow. (it's my blog)

Thanks for your response! Did you check out the Easy Bake post? What kinda blog is this? Easy Bake oven day followed by Meet the Press. Go figure :-D

Robert said...

I'm not sure if my answer will be specific enough for your liking but I'll give it a go. Taxes. McCain will continue to give tax breaks. When Kennedy, Reagan, and Bush did this, the economy lifted. Even though tax rates went down, in all three cases more revenue was generated. More money in the peoples pocket means they will spend in how they please and the economy does well. Higher taxes have always made people conserve more and spend less. Unemployment goes up, businesses close, and the economy takes a dive. Obama's tax plan says he will give tax breaks to 95% of Americans, a figure that is not true because about 1/3 of the people currently pay no taxes. The group he will raise taxes on are the employers. If their taxes go up, in order to stay in the black, they will have to cut jobs. They will have to make up this money some where. And that means us. We will get stuck paying for their higher tax rates. McCain and Obama are night and day on this issue. McCain is not my favorite choice by a long shot. But based on issues alone and what McCain's plan will do for our economy as opposed to what Obama would do, McCain gets my vote. I hope my reasoning makes some sense and is helpful. :)

dmarks said...

Robert: Obama wants to raise taxes on the oil companies, which would get passed directly on the consumers at the pump. That's an example of him raising taxes on everyone.

cheer_dad said...

I came across this quiz thanks to Lifehacker.com at http://glassbooth.org/. You are first asked to "weight" the importance of a number of issues by adding points to a number of issues. Then, you are asked a series of questions on a number of different/key topics. They are not presented in a partisan fashion, you simply answer based on your own thoughts and beliefs. When you are done, it will provide a percentage basis of which candidate you are most similar to.

Momisodes said...

I'm in the same boat. Sorry no help from me. But I thank you for posting as I'm following the comments here.

WeaselMomma said...

I love discussing politics, but not so much typing it. Basically I am a conservative that will be voting McCain because he is closer to my views on the issues. Basically take Mr. Lady's comment and invert it and you have my post. Except I don't know anything about what she means in the last point.

Nellie said...

Mr Lady has it right on about the health care. I think socialized health care is a must... McCain's plan for health insurance is this...

We will all get a $5000 tax break. It will be taxed and then sent directly to the health insurance company. We will see none of it.

He wants to deregulate health insurance just like it has been done with banking/cc companies, etc. (and we all know how well that's worked out) Which will then allow health insurance companies to set up shop in whichever state has the least amount of restrictions. This will result in people being denied coverage for pre-existing conditions and will allow these companies to deny a claim at any time for little little if any reason.

I think health care is a basic human right. Socialized medicine isn't the perfect answer but I think it's better than what we've got going for us now. Greg and I both have good jobs. We pay a $367monthly premium for family coverage and we still have a $4600 family deductible! Insane! My entire income pretty much pays health insurance and daycare.

Another thing I am insanely passionate about is Roe V Wade. This is my body. No one should be able to make decisions about it but me and my family.

Can you imagine if you 13 year old daughter was raped and it resulted in a pregnancy. Can you imagine the pain and anguish she and the family would have to go through if Roe V Wade is overturned and she was essentially forced to carry the pregnancy to term, go through labor and delivery (physically and emotionally taxing!) and then deal with the emotions of giving the child up for adoption. But wait, Palin suggests counseling rape and incest victims...so I'm sure your daughter would turn out fine as long as she had that counseling.

Oh I have to stop. I could go on and on. Obviously I am a die hard Democrat and Obama will be getting my vote in 17 days.

dmarks said...

I am strongly opposed to socialized medicine. If you think things are bad in health care now, imagine what would happen if we socialise it, and it all becomes one single unaccountable monopoly?

The health care system we have works for most. It needs to be fixed for those it does not work for. But we don't need anything as radical as ruining the system by turning it over to the government....

The same people who bring us the cost-efficiency of the Pentagon, the timeliness of the US Postal Service, and the customer service ethic of the unemployment office.

Health care is too important to trust to the ruling class. Leave in control of the public.

dmarks said...

"We will all get a $5000 tax break. It will be taxed and then sent directly to the health insurance company. We will see none of it."

Food stamps get sent directly to the grocery store. Does that mean we never see any of it? No. The people with food stamps get food. Just like the health insurance money will coem back in the form of health care.

Nellie said...

dmarks... we'll agree to disagree. I stand by what I believe and respect your opinion also.

I agree that right now the health insurance we have works for most. But I strongly believe that will change if McCain is in office.

Mitchell Cogert said...

I am an independent and undecided.
Since I live in California my vote doesn't count since its going Democratic.
Overall I believe we have two of the most impressive candidates for President in a very long time. Obama looks to be a little too inexperienced, although very ambitious. McCain looks to be a little too old, although very experienced.
We need to go to one person, one vote and get rid of the electoral system. Until then, it's off to the poker tables...

Greg said...

My only comment about any of this will be about health care.

I do not believe that our health care system "works" for most people. I cannot think of one person I know that likes our health care system. It "works" for most people because it has to. I think that staying with the same system we have now will continue to suck a lot of money from good, hard woking Americans who do not have the money to pay the rediculous prices we pay for our current health care.

If socialized medicine is so bad, why does viturally EVEY county in the world use this system except us?

I agree with Mr.Lady and if I can't blame her for not wanting to come back to this screwy, messed up health care system.

Kat said...

We could always go with that my 15 year old cousin said that if Obama wins he is moving to Australia. I don't know if that is a good or bad thing. Take it how you will.

dmarks said...

"If socialized medicine is so bad, why does viturally EVEY county in the world use this system except us?"

The people from these same countries end up coming to your little local hospital (you know, in downtown Rochester) to get the very best health care, and they use all those drugs created in the US. There are some things that work very well in the US healthcare system: too important to endanger with such a radical solution as a government power-grab: placing it all in the hands of the biggest business of all and making an unaccountable monopoly of it.

I do agree with regulation, and we need more of it. There is too much profiteering: from unions that try to shut down hospitals in order to shake them down for more money, to frivolous lawsuits, to the aforementioned drug companies themselves.

Grampa W said...

This comment is from the General.

Politically we have been very close to agreeing on most everything (although he rarely agrees with me on that). However with this post he is quite correct. But I don't believe with the checks and balances our political system has one person wields enough power to change everything. Congres makes the rules and spends the money. The judicial department interprets the rules and makes laws. The Executive branch makes everything look good and has limited power. All three have their function and up to now it has worked rather well. The power comes from the leaders of the respective political partys. They creat the agendas and when and if a bill is introduced. Generally most bills are introduce knowing that they will pass and the president isn't told to veto it. I am convinced that the party boss (so to speak) is most times the authors of most bills and weilds the most power. Congress got us in this mess with this economy, and for the last several years it has been controlled by democrats. They are good at letting things get out of hand. We had controls on all the banking practices. They let them do what they wanted.

The political arena right now is as unsetteling as it can be. Who would make the best President?? Maybe OhCaptain.

Rian said...

Bob Barr!

I used that glassbooth.org site and found out in hard numbers what I already knew:

"Bob Barr shares a 89% similarity with your beliefs"

http://www.bobbarr2008.com/

Want to know more, let me know!