Sunday, November 02, 2008

I endorse...

none of the above. That is a cop-out though, so I will endorse.

I had a long winded, rambling post already written. But it was tedious, and didn't really get at the core of what helped me make my decision. A conversation with Jenny solidified it for me. She asked me, "So, how comfortable would you be if McCain died and Palin became president?". Without hesitating, I said "Not comfortable at all. She has too little experience to be president." And thats what made me realize that I am voting for.... McCain, dangit. Why? When I realized that Palin had too little experience to be president, the fact that Obama has even less makes me even more nervous. The experience she lacks are areas of knowledge like foreign policy and the like, things that Obama was equally ignorant about until he decided to run for president after less than 2 years as a senator. Palin has at least governed. Palin has made decisions at the executive level. Palin has had to struggle against well established incumbents in her own party. Obama has done none of those things. He has only done one thing at the presidential level- run for president. Once I realized that, my gut told me I can't vote for him, even if his voice sounds nice and he seems competent. So my default is McCain, even though I am not excited about him- just less concerned about his qualifications.

If McCain loses, I will be disappointed, but only somewhat. Either Obama can be successful at being president, or he will not. If he is successful and manages to improve the economy and stimulate growth and in general be a competent president, the country wins. If he is awful and swings the government and the courts far to the left, the republicans have a chance to nominate a competent candidate in 4 years (not very long, after all), and rebuild the party. Either way, the world will still be here in 4 years.


WHO DO WE WANT?

MCCAIN!

HOW MUCH DO WE WANT HIM?

ONLY SOMEWHAT!



postscript:

So did I even consider Obama? I did. I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt. Associates of his how have worked with him in the past claim he is a fair minded centrist. His legislative history, however, showed me he is not a centrist, but is in fact a solid leftist (not that theres anything wrong with that...). I don't want another repeat of the Bush years: generally incompetent while brazenly partisan and divisive. I think Obama would be a repeat of that. I fear that McCain may be the same, but who is to know?

3 comments:

Julie C said...

Is anyone actually qualified to be President? If so, where are these people?

Nick said...

I can think of a handful of Republican and Democratic governors and former governors that I think are qualified, even if I don't necessarily agree with their politics. Of all the primary candidates, I thought that Richardson and Romney were the most qualified.

apyknowzitall said...

Darn, and I already mailed my Obama ballot last week!

Seriously, I opened my mind a bit when McCain solidified the nomination but he killed it when choosing Palin. Had he chosen Romney I would have considered them, albeit not for very long but I would have not been so closed minded. Of course it's not the experience thing, it was more of I felt offended that out of all the more qualified running mates there were, he chose a woman. Is that sexist? You betcha! It seemed that his sole purpose in choosing her is to a. satisfy the far right, religious gun toting Falwell republicans and b. snag a few ticked off Hillary supporters. It was insulting that he didn't seem to put more thought into his decision.