I'm Voting for Obama and Biden
by Ellen
(Florida)
Ellen wrote:
I confess when I first heard McCain would be the Republican candidate, I was excited. I thought I could be happy no matter which party won.
But after studying his voting record on issues that matter to me, like the environment, consumer protection issues, the war, and personal freedoms, I came to the conclusion that there was no way I could vote for him.
I am happy to be voting for Obama and Biden. I respect them both and am very impressed with Obama's independence and connection with the challenges everyday Americans are facing. I am looking forward to this election and a renewed vision for America in 2009!
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Ed. note:
Hi, Ellen. We thank you for contributing to our election discussion.
We're wondering if you would share with our readers where there is evidence that Obama has ANY "connection with the challenges everyday Americans are facing."
In one of his fiery speeches, Jeremiah Wright famously shouted, "Barack KNOWS what it's like to be a poor black man." Either Wright had no idea what he was talking about, or he was deliberately twisting the truth to fit his own agenda.
Until he finished law school and was married to Michelle, Barack Obama didn't have a clue what it was like to live as a black man at all. And he's certainly never lived as a "poor black man."
Barack Obama was raised by his white single mother and her white parents. He had almost no contact whatsoever with his black father, who left when Barack was less than a year old to accept a scholarship to Harvard. The scholarship didn't cover expenses to bring his family along, so Barack Obama Sr. left his teenaged bride and infant son behind, to be raised in a white family.
From the time he was 10 years old, Barack Obama attended an elite private school in Hawaii that was attended by children of only the wealthiest families on the island. Then he continued to college at prestigious Columbia University in New York, and finally to Harvard Law School.
How many "everyday Americans" have the opportunity to attend prestigious Ivy League schools?
At Columbia, tuition and fees for the 2006-2007 school year were $45,182 (annually)! That figure included full-time tuition ($32,580), mandatory fees ($2,420), and room and board ($10,182), according to education.yahoo.com.
How many "everyday Americans" can afford more than $180,000 for four years of college? None that we know.
And at Harvard Law, the world's most-famous law school, tuition is approaching $40,000 per year. Add fees and living expenses, which are estimated at an additional $20,000, and three years at Harvard Law School is another $180,000.
This means that if Senator Obama were enrolling at today's tuition rates, his education would cost roughly $360,000. Obviously, tuition rates were different when he attended, but we imagine they would be roughly equivalent when translated to today's dollars.
We don't know many "everyday Americans" who can afford $360,000 for higher education.
Obama and his family currently live in a $1.65 million home in Chicago, purchased with help from now-convicted felon Tony Rezko.
When Barack Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate, his wife Michelle worked at University of Chicago Hospitals. Just months after her husband was sworn in to the U.S. Senate, Michelle Obama was promoted to a vice president at the University of Chicago Hospitals and her salary nearly tripled, from $122,000 to $317,000 a year (in 2005). In
Earlier in her career, Michelle Obama worked in the office of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. What word springs to mind when you hear "Chicago Mayor Richard Daley?"
Then we have Barack Obama's close association with characters such as former Weatherman William Ayers and Nation of Islam's Louis Farrakhan, both of which are extremely troubling.
We're just wondering which of these factors show a "connection with the challenges everyday Americans are facing"?
There's no doubt that Obama is a far more charismatic speaker than John McCain. He's also had more training for it -- he was trained in public speaking and jury persuasion at Harvard Law School. John McCain has spent his entire career serving America, and obviously has not spent as much time training for public speaking.
But we hope you'll listen beyond the flowery rhetoric when Obama talks, and see that when he's unscripted, his flowery words say nothing. When asked his opinion of when human life begins, he responded that answer was "above my paygrade!"
Ummm, in the U.S., how do you get "above the paygrade" of the President - the country's chief executive?
The question comes down to character and trust. If your country is facing its darkest hour (and we believe the specter of Islamic extremism could very well result in our darkest hour), to whom do you trust the future of your children and grandchildren?
The man who has been protecting and defending America in some capacity since 1958 (three years before Barack Obama was born), who stands by his convictions even when they're unpopular, and whose loyalty is unquestioned? The one with 26 years experience as a member of Congress (elected to the House in 1982 and to the Senate in 1986)?
Or the man who's surrounded by questions and controversy and questionable associations, and who spent just 143 days (that's less than 5 months) in the Senate before deciding he was sufficiently experienced and qualified to be President?
For us, Ellen, it comes down to a matter of character and trust.
While we don't agree with John McCain on every issue, we know he's a man of integrity, who honestly said he'd rather lose an election than see America lose this war on terror.
And we believe the war against Islamic extremists is the defining issue of our lifetime. If we don't defeat these terrorists now, your children or grandchildren may very well be living in burkhas under Sharia law (or dead).
Our America will cease to exist.
We're just not willing to take that chance. Barack Obama is an unknown with virtually NO experience. He's certainly not qualified to be Commander-in-Chief of the most powerful nation on Earth.
He spent more than 20 years sitting in a pew listening to sermons from a man who preaches "God Bless America? No, no, no -- God DAMN America." Would he have continued to attend that church, and call that pastor his spiritual mentor, if he disagreed with the views expressed from the pulpit?
We want a man in the White House with the courage of his convictions, not one who dodges questions about his convictions with a flippant comment about it being "above his paygrade."
That's why we wholeheartedly support John McCain for President.
We invite you to share your opinions on the Presidential election. Click below to add your comment to this submission, or to start your own page with a new submission. And thanks for participating.
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