Obama or McCain (Answer even if you aren't American)?

OK Fennec-

You asked to "see" us think.

The trade offs in this election are as difficult as in any we have had in my lifetime (first voted in the 1976 election). I do not believe either candidate is right for the job, but for different reasons.

McCain is old Washington. Nothing new. Same old attack by Republicans against Democrats that we've heard since Johnson..."Tax and spend, tax and spend" (as opposed to President Bush's marvelous "spend, spend, spend" economic policy.) I chuckle every time The McCain camp paints themselves as a departure from the last eight years. They certainly don't "look" all that different from what we have been stuck with recently. I guess the copporate welfare and bailout programs are just BIGGER than before...that must be the huge change they tout. They are not small government fiscal conservatives. Thet are socially conservative hawks. So two for four for them.

Obama is untested and makes Kennedy look like an accomplished politician. He talks about change and I believe that he intends to "shake things up" in terms of taxation of those in the $300K neighborhood. It will be a return of a high bracket we once had in the 70's. If one is a true "middle class American" with something around the median income (about 40K or so), Obama is your ONLY logical choice. McCain will continue to provide tax relief that favors the top 1% (holdings in excess of 1M) over the middle class by a factor of 3 : 1 (which is about where Bush set the bar). Obama is neither conservative nor "small government", but he seems more fiscally aware than McCain (at least for the vast majority of this land)...so he's one for four (although if he really cuts the size of government, he's two for four, also).

What bothers me about both camps is that they could not possibly represent our two best choices. Both are heavily flawed and neither will disclose their true adgenda (because it would anger 50% of the population some of whose votes they each wish to capture) even though they both know exactly what they want to do with energy, the economy, the wars, taxes, healthcare, and every other issue.

There is no "change" in either candidate. They are both "politics as usual". And in a time when we are about to enter another great depression, perhaps, I find that alarming and a bit infuriating.

It is easy to pick for most Americans: Got a loved one whom you want to come home from war now? Make lass than 1/4 M a year? Obama is your guy. Have holdings in the 1-10M range with loads of investment income and capatal gains income?...McCain is your fellow.

I am personally bothered, though; because I am in that later group and yet the talk on energy by McCain (how nuclear energy is a key part of the solution) is rubbish. The US is the Saudi Arabia of Solar and wind. Nuclear makes little sense right now. Also McCain picked a VP who MUST NOT EVER become President. She is ill informed and does not think well on her feet (if she had done as well as the McCain folks said in that debate with Biden, them why is it that only FOX news is allowed to talk with her? Let's hear that great political mind work and offer up the big solutions...never gonna happen).

So I am a life long conservative hawk who has protected our constitutional freedoms and loves this republic. I have lived the American dream, and Obama and McCain are the best we can muster? It is a vote for the person I dislike least. Neither is fit for the job, in my opinion. But I will pull the lever and pray that the winner will somehow not make things too much worse than he found them.

-F

The twelve step program for you will start with putting down the keyboard and stepping away from the elections section at Y!A . Do you really think you are required to immerse yourself in election minutia? See that's the really great thing about the US...you can be a total knob, and it's okay. If you are tired of ranting here, then go rant somewhere else or give up ranting altogether. I'm excited about this election. This is my ninth election, and I have been more charged up about this one than any I have seen up to this time. I'm more interested now than I was in 1976, my first general election after turning 18. step 2 - go outside step 3 - breathe in and out slowly step 4 - say hello to those other humanoid beings that live in the neighborhood step 5 - ask if they know where you can find a paper step 6 - buy and read a paper step 7 - circle jobs in the classified step 8 - apply to one step 9 - surrender to a higher power - you now have a boss to tell you what to do. You get the general drift.

Obama

Obama...not McCain cus of Palin...Just imagine if McCain at 72 suffers a stroke and dies, Palin would actually be entrusted to lead America, wth?

Obama! Do we really want McCain and Palin making the country much more worse?

Obama

Obama

Obama

Obama

Obama