I love Obama's message of changing Washington, bringing the troops out of Iraq, believing in ourselves and making the world a better place. But, when it comes down to the real election, I can not bring myself to vote for Obama. I think he is a great speaker and people get caught up in what he says but now that the media is finally examining him closely, people are coming out of their daze and seeing that he just doesn't have the experience. Changing Washington is a great idea except that it cannot happen. (I know "Yes we can" but seriously we can't) Partisan politics has been a part of our system of government for quite some time and while you may be able to work together on some things, you just cannot convince me, and many republicans, that we should raise taxes on businesses, raise the minimum wage, and have government universal health care. Claiming John McCain wants to fight in Iraq for a hundred years gets cheers from Obama's crowd but thats not entirely true. McCain said we could have a presence in Iraq for 100 years which seems pretty accurate. We have bases in Japan, Germany, Korea, Turkey, The Philippines, all over the world and Iraq would be a nice place to have a base considering our next war will probably take place over there.
The biggest problem Obama has is his complete lack of knowledge and experience in national security. Some people are crediting Hillary Clinton's 3 AM add with her regaining the edge over Obama. Experience is important. That is why I cannot go into a company and be the president, I don't know what to do. Yes I may have fresh ideas and a new perspective and could clean up corporate America but nobody will give me that chance. Thats probably a good idea. I think the same should be true for our country's president. Obama in ten years will be a much better candidate. Right now the economy seems like a big deal to everyone because we are spoiled with huge growth but if we encounter another nationwide terrorist attack, national security will automatically be the biggest issue. I know everyone hates George Bush but we have not encountered another attack and I do feel safe with George Bush as president. This is why if that phone in the white house is ringing at 3 am with a crisis I know who I want to answer...
John Mc Cain.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
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7 comments:
Very nice post.
You might be interested in a recent TIME Magazine article that discusses the backfire of Clinton's "3 am" ad and the importance of national-security qualifications in presidential elections:
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1719898,00.html
Very well said.
I think you could be convinced about the minimum wage.
Also, have you seen what the poverty level is? I, as a single person with 30k a year in tuition, healthcare and stipend, would have to have 5 kids to be counted as poor.
We are convinced we need bases in Japan, Germany, Korea, Turkey??? The U.S. is 9 trillion dollars in debt, a global military presence is one of many things (i.e. universal health care) this country simply cannot afford. The decline of the dollar is the first sign of impending bankruptcy. The scare tactics are ridiculous. We have been bombarded with ideas of this imminent "threat". I will be safe regardless of who answers the phone.
You should be convinced that we need those bases. In case you are not aware we have treaties with many nations (Japan, Kuwait, Taiwan, Isreal to name a few) that we are obliged to defend in the case of any attack. It would be a lot easier to defend Japan or Taiwan if China attacks them and we have a base in Japan. You may not like the fact that the US military is everywhere but we play an important part in the security of the world. Sucks if we don't like it but it is too bad.
Jason & Albert,
With regards to American bases abroad (particularly in the Middle East), I thought you both might be interested in a New York Times op-ed co-written by one of my professors here at the LBJ School:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/12/opinion/12press.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Time+to+Offshore+Our+Troops&st=nyt&oref=slogin
In the article, he discusses some of the problems with maintaining military bases in the Middle East. I think it is rather compelling.
Although the authors do not mention it, I think the article also alludes to one of the glaring flaws of U.S. foreign policy: that America rarely attempts to see things from other country's perspectives. This has led to numerous policy miscalculations, one of which we are currently paying the price for.
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