The Next President

Entirely too late in the political season to matter much at all, I contribute to the zeitgeist with the news that I support Barack Obama for President of the United States. This decision is mostly based on what Sen. Obama offers to the nation for the next four years, but there is a not-small element of resistance to Sen. McCain. I will begin with the latter and finish with the former.

John McCain of 2000 was by my count an honorable, interesting and surprisingly honest candidate. He seemed to embody many of the remedies Washington sorely needed then, and still does today. Though the term has outworn its welcome, McCain was an exhibited maverick, the value of which is all the more evident by the rigidity of President Bush these last eight years. Unfortunately for him, that brand was severely undercut by his sidling up to the far right factions within the Republican party that he calculated was necessary to win the GOP nomination. He sacrificed any banked independence by so nakedly courting those he had built a career bucking. This entrenched him as something of an opportunist in the worst sense. While the "old" McCain is surely lurking beneath the current exterior, it is unclear whether he will ever return to take the controls of the body and mind.

Beyond the senator's political shift lies the type of campaign he sanctioned and ran. Erratic, a term used by his opponent to great effect, is a true description of McCain's fluctuations between campaign messages and narratives, and his frenetic approach to expressing his self-described sense of "strength." He chose Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, a move I predicted should McCain want to choose a woman, but she has turned out to be woefully unprepared to assume the position for which she was nominated. I can understand why she initially excited the base, and why she remains popular with them, but under no circumstances has she demonstrated the knowledge, skill or ability to be the Vice President. Her selection flew in the face of months of McCain proclamations that he would choose a running mate strong on national security and foreign policy issues that would be ready to be President on Day One. McCain needed to shore up his support among the lukewarm Republican base, and in a short-term move, chose a running mate that would please them. Hardly an example of putting "country first."

McCain's aides have been recently quoted in the press bashing Sarah Palin, laying the groundwork for her to accept blame should the election not go McCain's way. This tactic reeks of pettiness and a total unwillingness to rationally assess their own performance and accept responsibility for any and all campaign mistakes. The initial choice of Sarah Palin did more harm than anything she herself did, except for possibly bombing her two network interviews.

Sen. McCain chose to deal with the financial crisis by declaring his campaign to be suspended, only to never actually suspend anything. He threatened to skip the first debate to return to Washington to work on a bailout bill that he never actually did anything on – he stayed silent in meetings and had no effect whatsoever on any eventual outcome. He made the debate on Friday, then "resumed" campaigning on Monday, the day the bill he made a big show of working on failed in the House of Representatives. The whole episode can reasonably called "erratic" which is exactly what the Obama campaign has done and what has stuck.

In short, John McCain is the wrong person to elect President for the above reasons and many more; a once-formidable and qualified candidate is not deserving of winning this election. Conversely, Sen. Barack Obama is the right person to elect President of the United States.

After a meteoric rise through the political ranks of this nation, Sen. Obama has demonstrated over the last 22 months exactly what type of leader he is and will be in the White House. Showcasing the bipartisanship needed to make important progress, as in his working with Sens. Lugar, Hagel, and Coburn on nuclear and health care issues, the next four years should include a president seeking out the thoughts of the minority party and actually hearing what they have to say. It is a certainty that an Obama Administration will prove irksome on some issues relating to said progress, but that is inevitable. What really matters is that good faith efforts are made to take this nation into the future by improving our infrastructure and domestic services while strengthening our image abroad.

Spearheading an economic policy that directly benefits the middle class, the largest swath of Americans, that includes tax breaks to citizens as well as tax breaks to companies that keep jobs in America instead of encouraging their deportation without replacement. Working on the healthcare crisis in this nation by mandating coverage of minors – the most vulnerable demographic – while providing choice for adults is a compromise that will move us in the right direction. Couple that with a renewed and strong focus on preventive medicine, as Sen. Obama did with Sen. Coburn on legislation that never saw the light of day, will significantly modernize the healthcare industries as well as severely reduce costs at every level.

Investing heavily (through government and encouraging that of the private sector) in a green economy benefits myriad aspects of our nation. Reducing our consumption of oil, especially from foreign sources, helps with our national debt, helps strengthen our foreign hand, helps our economy by adding jobs in the field and R&D, and improves our environment. An environmental policy that significantly effects our national security. Sen. Obama will be a strong proponent of shifting America in this direction, though unfortunately, with the current state of the economy, might take longer than otherwise to produce any serious results.

A President Obama will immediately signal to the rest of the world that we once again value their thoughts, opinions and actions, and while we of course reserve the right to disagree and act in our own interest, even if unilaterally, our nation will work closely with our allies and our enemies to improve the lives of Americans as well as those that desperately need the help. An American president of African descent will finally mean a focus on African issues that hopefully will transform that continent into something more than the political disaster it currently is across much of the land. Strengthening democratic nations on the continent and encouraging a move to democracy in those that currently lack it, as well as fighting with a renewed vigor the tragic and unnecessary health crises while continuing the Global War on Terror in ways that forbid the expansion of zealous hatred in the most devastated parts of the world very well could be the defining legacy and great triumph of a President Obama.

Certainly, voting for Sen. Obama will not solve every problem facing this nation. Nor will he fix all of the mistakes of the past. Neither will voting for Sen. McCain. And either man will definitely make mistakes and create problems of his own. But in today's climate, a psychological change is required, an upheaval of dramatic proportions that will allow for progress – mistakes and success – to be made. If, in two years, this has clearly backfired, we have the power through our right to vote to alter the calculus of our government. In the meantime, Sen. Obama has my vote and my confidence to take the reins of America and drive us into a future of change, of progress, of hope.