Honestly six months ago I was very excited about the upcoming elections. It would be a welcome change from the incompetency of the Bush Administration. Now after watching Barrack Obama and John McCain fumble their way through this past summer, I have confidence in neither of these two. Obama gives these lavish speeches about change and hope yet he has no plan on how to execute these reforms we desperately need in this country. He is the popular candidate because of his personality and ability to impress people and charm them into believing. McCain comes across as the guy with the experienced resume and track record to lead this country in a different direction. However, His policies are identical to the current administration. Practically, he voted for a lot of the things that are leading this country into trouble now. Its like having a second Bush elected as president once again. That thought in itself is very repulsive to me and thus I am conflicted and often saddened that the future of this country looks no brighter than it was yesterday. In what is shaping up to be the most important elections of our lifetime, there is the lack of a clear cut genuine leader with a vision to bring great change and help restore America as the world's finest democracy. Come November 4th, I will still go out and fulfill my duty to vote but I feel very sad that the choice will not be an easy one and the outcome may not be what we as Americans expect from our elected leaders. In the end, I think we need major changes in how candidates are chosen in this country and perhaps give opportunity to new people with fresh ideas the chance to make a difference instead of rehashing the same politicians with new branding and packaging. God Bless America!!!
Nothing is preventing you from voting for a third party candidate. Doing so ensures that more people do in the next election cycle.
FYI -- this is just my two cents, and I don't mean to claim any insight into you other than your post -- I just know a lot of people like you that hate both candidates, which is fine. But you strike me as someone who has bought into the negative advertising of both sides. Obama has no substance? Have you been to his website, or heard any of his policy speeches? He has more substance than the majority of presidential candidates over the last 20 years -- he just also happens to give inspirational speeches too that, in and of themselves, are short on substance. McCain is four more years of Bush? He's aligned himself with his party in order to secure his base. The fact is, (at least before he decided he had a chance at office and, naturally move to the right to win the nomination) he has been one of the few Senators of the past 20 years with the balls to stand up to his own party. Immigration, campaign finance reform, and at least his talk about global warming are examples from the past 5 years that come to mind. It's easy to be frustrated at a time like this when both parties are still jockeying for political power while the country seems like it's going up in flames. But you can't expect either candidate to wave a magic wand and fix this thing. Hillary, Romney, Huckabee, Kerry, Edwards, hell, even Billl or Reagan wouldn't have been able to do much more other than maybe run better campaigns or act like they're more concerned than Obama/McCain are (but it would still only be acting). In a nutshell, it's Drastic Change based on Good Judgment vs. Measured Change based on Experience. But I recommend cutting the BS that you see on TV and hear on the radio, and be one of the few that make an informed decision based on research/logic. Although it's getting rarer by the day, there's still unbiased information out there on the internet. And don't just look up Obama vs. McCain -- look up guys like Lindsay Graham, Aust in Goolsby, Phil Gramm, Susan Rice, etc. Just my two cents.
I have to agree with the previous poster. Your objections are straight out of the campaign playbooks. They are giggling cause you've bought completely into their messages. Let me summarize your post. Republic talking points list: Obama has no substance? check McCain is more experienced? check Dems talking points list: McCain is more of the same? check Both: Most important election in our lifetime? check We need major change? check You are eating this stuff up.
I had to bold this part because it is important. If you say Obama has no real plan or substance it is because you haven't been looking hard enough or listening. It's not because it doesn't exist.
First of all I never used a harsh word like "hate" to describe my feeling towards both candidate. What I said was that I disliked them meaning they have very little appeal to me as of right now. Second, I don't know what the standard for "research" on a guy is these days but this country has elected Presidents for over two hundred years now based on their campaign speeches and performance in debates on the issue that matter to the citizens of this country. Never has the average American been required or even expected to have complete knowledge of the candidates entire political career beforehand in order to make an informed decision. I know these days you can pull just about anything on a politician like voting record, recorded statements via youtube or even entire speech transcript from the internet. However, this is the kind of stuff which has driven Americans away from the voting booth in the last several decades. The media's round the clock punditry combined with some people's excessive flaunting of political understanding has left the rest of us feeling like maybe we have no clue what these elections are about so lets just stay away. I come to this board every now and then and see the same thing I have witnessed elsewhere on the internet in the blogsphere. People are more consumed by the minutiae details of the candidates' lives both personal and professional. Seriously, people are making it more complicated than it really is with all these discussions that lead nowhere. I personally don't have the time nor the incline to learn everything there is on both candidates. I think majority of Americans feel this way so I am not alone. Throughout my life and experiences, I have learned to look a man straight in the face and tell his character by the spoken words coming from his lips. This barometer has never failed so will stick with and let everyone else ponder all the millions of questions, doubts and uncertainties before the elections.
I don't either ...but your post was STRIKING in that it is a simple regurgitation of their campaign messages. I'm not sure if you realized it ...but that's how it came accross. You don't need to do much research but just be sensitive to yourself when listening to all the hype and try to reach your own conclusions. It doesn't sound as though you've done that. ...and that is how GWB got elected ...twice. How did that work for you with regards to GWB? ...cause using that Barometer, as you call it, is essentially how he got many of his votes. How did that work out?
Because never before has such information been readily availabe at their fingertips. Come on, man this is just lazy. I'm not sure who I'm voting for either (leaning toward Obama mostly due to the colossal f up McCain made in choosing Palin), but it's really not that hard to avoid the campaign rhetoric and punditry and do a damn google search or pull up a wiki or two. Jesus. I mean, this is exactly how W got in. You'd think we would learn. We independents are the ones that determine who wins. We have to at least be somewhat knowledgable...
Yes I understand what you are trying to point out and agree with you that we need to use all the information at our fingertips to make a well rounded decision. However, I feel that people especially on this board take things too seriously picking apart small things like McCain's entire service record to point out why he would be bad choice for president and vice versa for Obama and his past. Come on people we need to look at the reality, the guy was a kid back then whatever he or didn't do is behind now lets focus on the present on what this man wants to do as president. To all those people who claim I have been affected by the media and its blitz of constant punditry and I am only playing to their gameplan. Let me ask you something plain and simple where do you guys get all these "researched" opinions from? The internet? Personal interview with both candidates? No everybody is getting the stuff from the same sources, newchannels, papers, websites. I would like to know as much as I can about the candidates and the issues at hand but seriously why do some people on this board come down on others like me who may not know every single thing about both candidates. I feel a lot of the posters here have a superiority complex, they think they are ahead of the pack and have greater knowledge and insight then everyone else. Sorry if I didn't spend the last 6 months chewing up everything there is know about these guys. As for my barometer aka instinct, gut feeling or whatever you may wish to call it, the fact is simple it has never led me to make bad decisions in my life so far. It didn't take whole for my barometer to tell me that McCain must be insane to think Sarah Palin is competent enough to run the country 2nd in command. I figured that out my own from the CBS interview with Katie Couric where Palin was complete in loss for words on her running mates track record regarding economic regulation. She gave everyone an IOU as the answer for that simple question. Maybe all you Republican researchers on this site could help her out cause you know more about McCain's policies than his running mate. Look I was naive and just a kid in college back when GWB cheated his way into office but now I think it is time I take our elections serious so I am doing the best I can to make a informed decision on which candidate to vote for. So far neither of these guys looks too good right now for me to swing either way. Yes I am an independent and vote solely based on who I think will do a better job. I have no party affiliation no colors. I am just the stupid American in true red, white and blue trying to figure out who is the right man for the job of leading this country for the next 4 years.
Yes, these days now there are 10340 times the streams of media and each of them tries to say something "different" the other didnt say, all for the aim of higher viewcounts. All you can do is narrow it down to the trusted sources and stick with those. Is its really necessary to say don't believe everything the media feeds you? Maybe you're stating its a problem for everyone else, since you at least have gut instinct to go off of. You're saying it was okay before and its too much now. The opposite is it was okay before, and to have LESS info now than before. I dont see how that would be good either. If anything good comes out of more media, its there's more a little more pressure to be accountable since there's more eyes watching what they're doing. Yes people's increased elitist attitudes make it more frustrating, and yes the media can always do a better job. But a blogger can't say "Just look Obama in the eye". Of course they're gonna try to dig some dirt. People should just imagine the words on a blog to look like salt grains.
Ghettocheeze, I'm glad to hear you are taking this election seriously. That's good news and we need more people like you. But your initial post outlined each and every line directly from the campaign ...not from web sites or pundits ...but DIRECTLY from the campaigns themselves. So I've beat this to death. I encourage you to listen to the campaigns but check yourself every now and then. For example, the "Obama has no substance" arguement. Before you adopt that position as your own, spend 5 minutes to verify that for yourself and don't take other people's word for it. If you go to Obama's website, it outlinese very specific policies. Or McCain, is he really more of the same? I don't fully beleive that. Honestly, I think McCain will be better than GWB. Problem I have with him are his collasal flip-flips over the past 10 years. So I don't really know what to beleive ...that's my problem.
ghettocheeze, it's your responsibility in this age of information to learn enough to make an informed decision about the candidates. I agree with others you've swallowed a bunch of campaign ads from both sides that have pushed your opinions off track. I won't tell you how to do it, but it's on you to take the time/effort to get beyond the campaign slogans. If you do that, you may end up liking one guy over the other. Maybe not.
Neither of these candidates are my favorites and they aren't even my first choices among all of the primary candidates the problem is though given the complex nature and the need to form broad coalitions across interest groups to win the presidency is exceedingly unlikely that any candidate will be a perfect match for any given voter. To a certain point every presidential election is a choice of the lesser evil. So while I'm not surprised there a lot of things you don't like about either candidate there probably are a lot of things that you like about them too. My advice is don't get hung up on the personalities, minutia or the horse race of the campaigns but consider where you stand on the issues and decide from there. I think then even if you don't like that Obama isn't that experienced or that McCain is too old you can at least decide which candidate is likely to advance the issues you care about.
I am always amazed that the most powerful country in the world always seems to have 2 not-so-great-persons to choose from to lead it.
After over a year of constant campaigning and innumerable debates (including the primaries), we have seen a lot about these candidates and there really should be no question where they stand in the grand scheme of things. Regardless of political affiliation, those folks still in doubt should probably just sit this one out.
