Obama Right Now

Reasons why Barack Obama is the perfect candidate and future President for right now.

We need a President who can be a diplomat and statesman. Being popular abroad is not a qualification, but it is certainly a benefit if your country has had it's reputation tarnished. As ours has. John Mc Cain can not deliver when it comes to mending fences and returning our reputation.

We need a President who can moderate and empathize. Who can end the current political stalemate. Barack Obama has proved effective at doing so. As his years as a legislator, and community organizer. He knows how to motivate people to work for a greater good. Mc Cain is an animal of the Senate. In his time he is known for his bad temperament and a reputation for being hard to work with. This is bi-partisan criticism. He may have a reputation of bucking his party, that doesn't mean he's an effective negotiator. He's been physical and verbally abusive with colleagues and constituents. We can't afford this now with the problems we face.

We need a President who recognizes that corporate influence in Washington has to stop. Obama has changed the way a Presidential campaign can raise money that isn't dependent on lobbyist. Unlike Mc Cain's campaign who has lobbyists for foreign countries on his campaign staff. Obama is not a populist but he has the ability and the will to actually take steps to limit the influence of corporate interests on government.
We need a President who recognizes it is neither cost effective nor efficient to privatize the military. War profiteering used to be considered treason, now it's the way Washington works. Barack Obama will refocus the funds that should be going to our military and take it away from military contractors who have been wasting tax dollars.

We need a President who recognizes the middle class is an essential part of a strong economy and the back bone of a strong country. Barack Obama won't merely start welfare programs and redistribute wealth as some on the right suggest. Our country's infrastructure has been neglected and needs to be rebuilt. We need to re-invest in labor. Mc Cain tells Michigan auto workers their jobs are never coming back and makes a vague reference to retraining the work force. To do what exactly?Those jobs or ones very close to them can come back with the right leadership. The right investment. We need someone who has seen the inner city's problems and rolled up his sleeves and did something about it. He knows that rural America is hurting too. What Obama proposes is not welfare, it's proper investment in the community. Job creation, excellent public schools.

We need a President who will stop wasting money! I know John Mc Cain likes to talk about pork barrel spending. That's swell but that's about 1% of our entire budget we're talking about. It sounds significant but by and large it's not. We need less wasteful spending across the board. The General Accountability Office has investigated wasteful spending by the current administration but Republicans have successfully prevented any serious inquiry by Congress. They have lost the mantle of fiscal responsibility as they don't even want to look at how our tax dollars have been wasted in one mad endeavor after another at the request of the Bush Administration.

We need a President who will make corporations pay their fair share fair of taxes. Obama will close loop holes that encourage corporations to outsource jobs and hide their profit in a mailbox in the Cayman Islands. George Bush cut taxes during a time of war and John Mc Cain was incensed about it. Never in recorded history has this happened. Now Mc Cain wants to keep the irresponsible tax cuts permanent. Barack Obama wants to let those cuts lapse that effect the top 1% of income earners. It would be foolish to over tax as Republicans fear and that is not the Democrats intention. The right balance has to be struck and what we have now is not working.

We need a President who represents the political center. During the campaign season both Mc Cain shifted to the right. Mc Cain was moderate but has now turned away from his more liberal positions. On tax cuts, civil liberties, and immigration. We can't afford another four years of right wing leadership. Barack Obama was arguably a liberal on many issues and surely his rhetoric early on was more populist. About a month ago there was a well documented shift to the center by Obama. I believe this is the only real way anything is going to get done. I can't trust that Mc Cain is merely trying to satisfy the right wing base of the Republican Party and will renege and shift back to the positions that made him a maverick in the first place.

We need a President who will balance sound and reasonable regulation on industry while encouraging growth. Mc Cain plans on laissez faire free market capitalism. The same failed policies that lead to the robber barons and the Great Depression. Capitalism must be regulated to sustain a middle class. The Constitution protects encroachment of our civil liberties from the government and business when it has too. We can't afford anymore schemes like the "The Clean Skies Initiative" that allows for more deregulated pollution of our streams and air. For decades Republicans have done their best to weaken regulatory agencies and now have their wish with this administration. What do we have to show for it? Corruption, under funded agencies with limited resources to do their jobs, dirtier air and water. Barack Obama understands this balance of markets and regulation. Mc Cain is frankly too lazy to care so just takes the advice of his buddy Phil "you're all a bunch of whiners" Graham who is very much responsible for deregulating the banks the tax payer is bailing out right now.

We need a President that can win back our good standing in the world. We need a statesman and diplomat at the highest level. That's Barack Obama. I know M Cain likes to mock the popularity Obama has had abroad. Forgive me for pointing out the obvious but we could really use that to our advantage right now. We don't need another hostile and belligerent President and that is exactly what we will get with John Mc Cain. Don't mistake prudent diplomacy with weakness or an unwillingness to resort to force. Obama has been consistent in saying he believes that if we had good intelligence that gave us bin Laden inside Pakistan and their government refused to act that we would. Mc Cain claims this is naive. But President Bush has recognized this possibility and signed given the ok for this very scenario. Obama has called for talks with our enemies like Iran. Bush and Mc Cain scoffed at that notion. But now are agreeing to do it. Obama called for a conditional time table for troop withdrawal in Iraq. President Bush just signed off on that too. Obama stood up in the Illinois Senate and denounced our attacking Iraq. It took our eye off the target. We depleted resources in Afghanistan before finishing the job. He was right, Mc Cain and Bush have been dead wrong and unwilling to accept reality. But eventually have come around to see things Obama's way. We can't afford another 4 years of an administration that takes months to catch up. We need sound judgement now.

We need a Constitutional scholar for President. We need to return the respect to our founding document and we need to revisit just how badly the Bush administration trampled all over it and see about fixing it. I don't believe John Mc Cain will pay this any attention and leave for future administrations to correct if they ever do. We need someone who understands the limits of government and the balance of power. And we need someone who can communicate that to the American people. It is more important than the Republican establishment is willing to admit. At the RNC last month several speakers demeaned it and implied it should be ignored, or at least the liberal parts of it.

We need Barack Obama to be President. He is the right leader for these times and he just happens to be the Democratic nominee for President of the United States. I don't believe he is some messiah with answers to all our problems. What appeals to me most is his bottom up approach. His belief in that the citizens not only have the power but the responsibility to participate in government. He will listen to opposing views and consider them. I don't believe Mc Cain will. He has not exhibited a willingness to do that in his entire career.