22 September, 2008

The First Forward I've Received in a Long Time, which Makes Sense

Subject: I'm a little confused...
I'm a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight.....

  • If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents and a single mother, you're "exotic, different."
  • If you grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, a quintessential American story.
  • If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.
  • Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick. *Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable. *Attend 5 different small colleges before finally graduating, you're well grounded. *If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer with a constituency of over 100,000 people, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.
  • If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.*If in those 4 in Washington you were able to author about half a dozen major laws (working with fellow Democrats and Republicans) and have 4 pass and signed, you don't have enough experienced.
  • If you serve 22 in the Senate, authored less than half a dozen laws and have only one signed (the McCain Amendment prohibiting torture in the armed forces which he, himself no longer supports) you're qualified to run the country.
  • If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian. *If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, then left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.
  • If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.
  • If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system, while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.
  • If your wife is a Harvard graduate laywer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America's.
  • If you're husband is nicknamed "First Dude", with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.
    OK, much clearer now....

Why vote Barack Obama?
His work as a community organizer provided him with a profound understanding of what real people need from their president. At the Republican National Convention, in which the theme was service, Republicans mocked Obama's willingness to put his country first. Obama. See Obama's response to the disrespectful Republicans.
McCain is bad for our foreign policy! He may have experience, but is it backed by a thorough understanding? Both he and Governor Palin have chiseled out an image of them leading America with absolute confidence, and have said time and time again that they would not blink to push that red button, but confident as they are, would it be an educated decision? It's been duly noted that McCain lacks enthusiasm for the details that the other senators, Obama and Hilary Clinton included, are quick to pick up. Time and time again he has been profoundly mistaken on foreign policy decisions, most notably on his recent tour in the Middle East, mistaking Sunni and Shia, sects that fundamentally do not get along. And he doesn't do it just once, he does it five times!! He's a "warrior who is dumb about war.As the Chairman of the Subcommittee of US Foreign Relations on European Affairs and through his voting record in the Senate, Barack Obama has repeatedly been right on Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan and supports our troupes, even after the war's ended, and he always has!
He wants to provide affordable healthcare and cut taxes for working Americans, taxing only those who make over $250,000. He would also eliminate taxes for seniors making under $55,000 per year.
McCain will overturn the historic Roe vs. Wade decision. In this respect, McCain exemplifies the contradiction that exists within the "sanctity of life" defense in which the majority of Republicans use in the same breath as "abortion," but according to Gallup, 80% of Republicans are also staunch advocates of the death penalty. There is quite a double standard. And how is wanting to protect the life of a mother not a reflection of the belief of every American - that life should be cherished and preserved?
As we all know, and are humbled by, John McCain was physically tortured for years during his service in Vietnam. We expect John McCain to hold a firm stance against such dehumanizing practices, however McCain has been swayed yet again to align with his party and now supports waterboarding. In fact, he seems to be changing his mind or confused on his stance for many other topics as well: click here to see. An exception being his stance on gay marriage. He's still against that.
Republicans like to note that Obama marks present when it comes time to vote, but what they don't tell you is how much more Obama gets done. The Library of Congress makes this information available at http://thomas.loc.gov/. Searching the list of bills/resolutions in the current congress (111th), Obama is listed as a sponsor or co-sponsor for 130, McCain is listed for 38. Search of the 110th congress came up with 660 bills/resolutions that Obama sponsored or co-sponsored, compared to McCain's 252. In the 109th congress Obama sponsored 579 bills/resolutions to McCain's 337. In the past three congressional sessions that adds up to 1,369 bills/resolutions sponsored or co-sponsored by Obama compared to McCain's 627 during the same period. Obama is over twice as productive in the Senate as McCain. Imagine what he could do as President!

2 comments:

Jake Parrillo said...

What's this like 9 straight posts (outside of the marathon one - Congrats, btw!) about Palin? Now I know it was a brillant pick because all you smart folks are doing is talking about her. Barry's not running against her. He's running against Senator McCain.

Palin FTW!

Matty said...

You're right, to an extent. The post isn't about Palin alone. It speaks to all components of the GOP argument on Obama, using Palin as a compare/contrast. It also mentions McCain leaving his first wife after a car accident, etc…
Palin is only continuously referenced because she was at the forefront of the news-cycle, as she was engineered. It was that and that McCain butchered his argument about Obama's inexperience when he selected a photogenic pick to couple with him, and provide his older ticket some youth. What’s more engaging at the moment is the economy and McCain the maverick reformer (insert humorous ironic laugh here) talking about regulation, in spite of his maverick deregulation nature—see: Keating 5. Keep mentioning Rezko, which didn’t get anywhere during March/April McCain, please. I think we continue to raise that up, and ask more questions about the S&L crisis ca. 1989.