Voter Pains

The wife and I will be going to the County Clerk's office tomorrow (Thursday) and cast early votes for the election to avoid any hassles with voter registration that our upcoming move to Wichita will cause (we will move before the election, but after the deadline for Kansas voter registration). After watching the final debate tonight, I still don't know who I'm going to vote for. I will take any comments on this post under serious consideration before I go out to vote tomorrow.

I don't like the misleading statements that accompany any campaign, and I am dissapointed, though not surprised that this election is no different on both sides. I am a registered republican who did not vote in 2004 because I didn't like either candidate.

McCain

I like McCain's call for a government spending freeze. I think he's right that the budget needs a hatchet, then a scalpel. I like that he calls Obama a good man on the campaign trail, and that he thinks that Obama would do a decent job as President (he then says that he [McCain] would be a much better President, of course), but I don't like that he turns around and releases an ad attacking Obama's character; calling Obama a liar, Palin's comment that he "pals around with terrorists," and so forth. I don't like that neither he nor Sarah Palin have rebuked the idiots at McCain rallies who shout out things like "terrorist" and "kill him" in reference to Obama. Granted, those are only a very small handful of people, but they need to know that they have crossed a line, a line that McCain should not allow to be crossed. I like his idea to take $300 billion of the $700 billion bailout and buy bad mortgages. I like that he says that he will elect judges based on their qualifications, not their ideology, though I'm hesitant to take his word on that, due to the partizan pressures applied to the President. Of the two candidates, I believe McCain is most likely to be bi-partizan, though not to the extent that I thought he would have been 9 months ago.

Summary:

I've lost quite a bit of faith in McCain. I don't believe he has managed his campaign very well, and I'm concerned that mismanagement will stay with him in the White House if he's elected. He was supposed to be the maverick, who didn't give a damn what partizanship says he should do. I think he's sacrificed a lot of what originally appealed him to me in order to appeal to more of a partizan base. I think he's been around Washington long enough to know what will and won't work, and I believe he would be a better Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. However, he promised "to take the high road" in his Presidential campaign, a promise he has failed to keep.

Obama

I like Obama's ideas regarding health insurance. However, I'm concerned that he doesn't have enough experience in Washington to know what will and what won't work when it comes to these types of policies. Though I like his plan, it's not exactly bi-partizan friendly. I disagree with most democrats on a majority of moral issues, such as abortion. So I am concerned that Obama stated in the debate that a judge's ideology is a big factor in whether he would consider appointing them. However, I am beginning to recognize that voting based on a candidate's ideology regarding issues such as abortion is only one of a number of issues that should be given full consideration. I like how democrats in general, and Obama in particular seem to be more focused on giving financial relief to working-class americans in this economic crisis, and I believe his tax plans appropriately reflect that.

Summary:

Obama has managed his campaign very well, and the advisors he will have with him in the White House will make up for his lack of experience compared to McCain. I think he will have to make some changes, or just flat-out not do some of the things he would like to do simply because when he gets into office, he's going to find that it's easy to say you will do something when you are in a campaign, but find that it is more difficult to actually do it (or get it through the Senate) once you get to the White House.