Our Turn

It's the last day of the 2008 Presidential election. Tomorrow it will be our turn to decide where our country goes in the next four years.

It has been an extraordinary race for so many reasons: the first serious bid by a female candidate; the most successful bid by an African-American candidate; the money--over 1.1 biiiillllion dolllars! raised (and spent) by both candidates; and an economic meltdown in the middle of it all.

On either side of the aisle there were amazing developments. Democrats, for example, implemented Howard Dean's 50 state strategy to great effect. Astonishingly, Republicans found a new female right wing standard bearer not named Ann Coulter.

After 116 blogs, in which I've tried to stay as non partisan as possible (though I certainly failed on several occasions), I'm going to give you my endorsement.

I'm going to vote for Barack Obama.

Here are some of the reasons. First of all, though my conservative friends are convinced that he will be a classic tax and spend Big Government Democrat, I'm not. While it's true that we need the federal government to be more active in this economic crisis, I believe that Obama will be careful to address the needs of the free market. I base that in part on the fact that he has economic advisers from both sides of the aisle, (Warren Buffet and Paul Volker are just two names that come to mind). His pledge to repeal the Bush tax cuts is not radical socialist ideology. Most responsible economists and industry players like Robert Rubin all agree that going back to Clinton tax rates will not be onerous and are absolutely neccessary to get some financial footing. Obama also believes in 'pay as you go', a centrist budget philosophy if there ever was one.

On foreign policy, Barack Obama will not be as conciliatory to our enemies as conservatives think. Though he has stated that he believes in negotiation, he has actually out-hawked John McCain on the issue of military incursions into Pakistan. I found it ironic that McCain repeatedly hammered Obama on this policy even though Obama's stance has been identical to the Bush administration's current strategy.

Finally, I look to recent presidential campaign history as a barometer of effectiveness. The facts reveal this truism: how a candidate campaigns is how he governs. Ronald Reagan mixed a sunny optimism with a firm hand in his campaign. That was the MO in his administration. Bill Clinton prosecuted a tenacious campaign that fought back from continual personal drama. Same as his two terms. George Bush seemed like a great guy on the trail--until he started to lose to McCain in 2000 and then he let his cutthroat surrogates sling their unscrupulous dirt. No surprise then, that the guy who 'wanted to change the tone in Washington' would become the most polarizing President since Nixon.

Which brings us to McCain and Obama. What we've seen in 2008, as we saw in 2000, is a McCain who lost his way. In South Carolina in 2000, he pandered to voters on the question of the confederate flag flying atop the statehouse, stating that it was a 'states' rights issue'. He later regretted that stance. In 2008, he abandoned his happy warrior persona and let himself be 'handled' by former Bush operatives--with disastrous results. They transformed him from a center right conservative to a negative right wing nut. He also ran a sloppy, undisciplined, off- message campaign that had to reshuffle staff twice. His scatter shot reaction to the economic crisis was downright scary. I'm afraid that's what we're going to get in his administration.

Barack Obama? He has presided over the greatest presidential campaign organization ever. They've set fundraising records, on-the-ground volunteer records and voter registration records. He set out a long term 50 state strategy and stuck to it. When things got tough on the trail, he responded coolly and without rancor. His message has been disciplined, his focus singular and when he wasn't sure what to do, he asked a bunch of experts. This is what I believe we can expect from an Obama presidency.

So that's how I see it. But however you see it, please VOTE! Our republican form of government is not a spectator sport. Get out there, speak your mind and we'll see what happens.

Thanks for reading these many months.

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