Or, better yet, what are you voting against?
I’m a cautious, fiscally conservative, middle-class white guy who thinks the United States of America is the greatest large country on this planet of ours, but I almost never vote for Republicans.
I don’t hate much in this world except ideology: at the very least it provides an excuse to ignore conflicting points of view, no matter how persuasive. At worst it leads to pure political blindness.
Given that I work in the news biz — journalists tend to vote 90 percent Democratic — it won’t surprise anybody to learn I cast my vote for Barack Obama. It’d be a far bigger jolt to learn I had voted for McCain, and I might’ve to protest the like-mindedness of my ink-stained co-workers. Wouldn’t have hurt anything in a state O will carry with at least 60 percent of the vote. I actually like McCain … he’s got a great sense of humor … but the saying making the rounds this time is we don’t need another Prez we’d like to share a beer with. We need the nerdy, clear-headed guy staying up late to make sure he’s checked out all the angles. I think that guy is Obama.
Your thoughts welcome … just keep it civil, OK?
voted Obama by CA mail ballot a few weeks ago. So far, I’ve never voted for a winning Presidential candidate. This was the first round I voted for a winning Primary Candidate — I’m hoping lightning strikes twice.
I’ll vote when I get home. I have a general distrust of politicians, and a phone at home smoking from recorded messages for or against almost everything. Politics makes me sick.
What does interest me is government, however. And I think it’s time for a thinker, a proactive force who (hopefully) will not subject his Presidency to the whims of polls. I think Obama gives us much of that, tempered with a lot of unknowns – is he a product of Chicago political machinery, or as good as he appears on TV? Time will tell…he’ll probably win by double digits, nationally.
I’m much more concerned with local representation. That’s where my money is best spent. These are the guys I can call if I need to bitch about anything (MOI?).
More than anything, put a lot of thought into your vote. Politics is a game of deception and misdirection when there’s nothing left on which to stand. Vote!
I continued my general trend of voting against all propositions (with a few exceptions). My thought is that the initiative process has been completely bastardized from what Hiram Johnson envisioned. It is now just a method for moneyed special interests to write laws. So everything gets a no vote unless I can be convinced otherwise. This year I made exceptions for 1A, 2, and 11.
And while he is a little too conservative for my tastes, I voted for Obama.
Tom: I sympathize on the props. You could safely note No on all of them just to send a message to lawmakers to do their damn jobs.
You can see the absurdity of all these props in the San Francisco elections, where somebody actually went out and collected signatures and a had a vote placed on the ballot to name a sewage treatment plant after George W. Bush. I admit it was funny, but elections are not episodes of The Daily Show.
I come from a union household with a liberal mom and dad so I should be comfy spending my working day surrounded by folks of similar bent, but I actually got a bit disturbed at the glee they were showing about McCains’ impending defeat. He’s an imperfect individual and probably wouldn’t have been much of a Prez, but I think his track record deserves a bit more respect.
Though i know that obama has spoken more about the idea of “change” i have never actually ever heard him say what he was going to do to fix things…only that he was going to…does anyone else share my concerns?
I voted for Obama. In my mind it’s always a gamble with any politician but for me Obama is the best bet as I see him as someone who is very smart and cool headed. One thought exericise I go through when voting for prez is to put their character in place of JFK in the Cuban Missile Crisis. Would they have been a hot head and blown up the world, or would they guided us safely through? I think Obama would be most likely to guide us safely through. And I admit, I am a flaming liberal and Obama is more conservative than I would like but hey, life is full of give and take and compromise. But I do think Obama has the potential to be a great president and I will sleep well with him at the helm.
And as for the propositions, I tend to vote no on them as well. I think we are more likely to get better legislation if the bills go through the haggling between the left and the right so that everyone’s concerns gets aired and accounted for. If the lawmakers do their damn jobs that is.
I must live in an alternate universe. Obama is to conservative?
He’s pro abortion, wants to raise taxes, wants to cut military. He is anti-oil, has stated he wants to bankrupt the coal industry. He’s for national health care, increased welfare, he’s pro environment and is committed to emissions reductions. What’s left?
I’m not trying to attack or defend these positions, I just don’t find any of them “conservative”.
Tom,
Why do 90% of journalist vote for Democrats?
AP: the duty of a journalist is to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable. This happens regardless of whether the afflicteds’ wounds were self-inflicted, and no matter how much the comfortable have worked hard and earned their comforts.
Plus, journalists are finders of fault by nature, and in an economy based on the pursuit of wealth, the people who have the most wealth appear to be the ones most to blame for whatever faults the system produces. Most problems are everybody’s fault, but stories saying so are considerably more boring than the ones with victims and villains.
Interestingly, loads of Republicans have been elected despite the voting tendencies of journalists, and loads of Democrats have been defeated.
Chad: Obama’s actual proposals received quite a bit of scrutiny in the news media, but you had to dig a little beyond the horse-race reporting to get them.
He was not a radical and in fact his recommendations were pretty middle-of-the-road.
The real change was “give the smart, capable black guy a chance this time.”
I voted “present” by mail last month. I did throw our local Morgan Hill Police Department a bone, since even the elected officials in our tiny town can’t seem to perform their most basic duties. I’m looking forward to President Obama’s first 90 days. Our republic must be a curiosity to much of the world, but I have to think that after each event like this, they must look upon us with a bit of envy – despite whatever public posturing they opine.
At work last night I kept thinking how proud I was to be an American. I don’t really remember thinking that nearly so much at any previous time in my life.
WHY I VOTED FOR OBAMA:
· Confident but not a huge ego
· Simple man, simple people – did you see the photo of him with his feet propped up on the desk and he had holes in both worn down soles. Did you see Michelle talking aobut her $34 gap dress. I bet michelle would have rejected being dressed up in a $150,000 wardrobe – as much as Palin is a home girl there was a big part of her that loved putting on those rich threads.
· A compassionate man – I love the way he rarely criticizes the republican party (as Hillary Clinton does and did even as she emerged from the voting booth), but rather obama speaks to the bush administration as getting us in this mess, and thereby does not blame all those hundreds of thousands of citizens who vote republican because that is their tribal affiliation nto because they necessarily like the tribe’s proposed leader. Obama moves beyond the tribalism of US politics as usual.
· Aware of others — did you see the interview clip with Dennis Hopper why he voted for obama – how he ran into obama in the elevator and what obama said to him? bill Clinton has that same acute awareness of others http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/04/dennis-hopper-i-voted-for_n_140940.html
· He’s honestly grassroots – that is his activist background and those assholes mccain folks tried to demonize grassroots activism, tried to convince grassroots folks that this is against their interest. Didn’t work!
· He ran basically an honest campaign — when they kept hitting him with mud, he rose above it. He could have easily gone negative on mccain or especially palin, what a field day the obama campaign could have had with her . . .but they didn’t sink to that level. Unlike mccain and palin who just let their crowds boo obama which led to “terrorist” name-calling and that BS, when obama crowds booed mccain’s name, Obama wasn’t silent but gave a classy response “Hey don’t boo, just go vote.”
· So unprovincial. He is probably the first president in our century who has lived outside the country in his formative years (as opposed to living abroad for college, e.g., Bill Clinton at Oxford ). What an unprovincial world view this gives him, especially as he spent time in the third world, not just europe . . .unlike palin who just got a passport last year. Just night and day difference.
· Good family man — what a great role model for African Americans in particular. He energized them to vote, maybe he will excite them to surge forward in pride and move beyond the slave years – and whites too but blacks are by and large in America so dysfuctional as a people. Being a good family man will make white people embrace a larger view of blacks, break down the ugly, unjustifiable racial stereotypes white people hold.
· Funny – sense of humor and just plain cool. He can dance!
· Open to all views – I love the way he said in his Chicago speech he is looking forward to hearing from people he disagrees with. Can anything be more opposite from george bush.
· Intellect — I love the way he put the wars, the climate and the economy as major challenges. Not that I followed everything mccain said, but throughout his campaign I think mccain just gave lip service to the environment and global warming. Whereas obama truly wants to focus on the environment. The new Yorker article shwoed how mccain wants to continue warrior policies in iraq while obama wants peace and he called for peace in his Chicago talk. I love that.
It really came down to the better candidate with the better campaign winning the election. Oddly enough it almost always happens this way (usually to Democrats’ chagrin because the Republicans are better at looking presidential most years.)
Tom,
I’ve always been proud to be an American.
ap: with all due respect if you’ve always been proud you haven’t been paying attention. Most of the known world would agree the pluses overwhelmingly outweigh the minuses, but plenty of shameful business got us to this point.
“gambolin man” – Your comment was amazing and hard for anyone to fight. If this was a fencing match you would of won in one move.
Tom – I agree, that night they announced Obama as president elect I felt a stronger sense of pride. I’ve always been proud of this country but hated how the last 8 years were tarnished by a greedy and uncaring administration.
Hopefully Obama and his administration can undo the wrongs and heal the self inflicted wounds.