Why Obama?
Mere weeks remain, soon the overburdening hysteria will subside as votes are tallied, recounts demanded and one reptile or the other slithers into the Oval Office. Like the majority of my fellow bloggers on HumidCity I am pro Obama. Unlike many out there I do not trust or like him very much at all. I do believe he is our last, best hope for salvaging something from our country’s toppling fall of the past eight years.
I don’t think anyone who seeks power is trustworthy, power intrinsically attracts the corruptible. Make no mistake, I am sharpening my claws for Obama’s screw ups once he is in office as I would anyone else taking the position. All politicians must be watch-dogged, even (sometimes especially) the charismatic ones.
That said I encourage all of you out there to cast a vote for Obama come election day. He is the only politician I’ve ever heard acknowledge the vital nature of dealing with the wetlands. While we were evacuated during Gustav I caught some of Anderson Cooper’s 360 when he was speaking with Obama. The Senator from Illinois was asked what his strategy for the Gulf Coast would be upon taking the Oval Office. Sen. Obama replied that while levees and housing issues are vital the most important thing is restoration of the wetlads so that this becomes a once every hundred to hundred fifty years occurence as aopposed to an every two or three year occurence. As Gulf Coast residents this is an angle we all to be on the same page about. “Drill, baby, drill!” will do nothing but further destroy our only barrier against the storm surge.
Obama is as close to the answer as we are going to get right now. It is incredibly important to have someone in office who will deviate from the disastrous path our country has been taken down by the “Current Occupant.” As McCain’s campaign becomes more overtly hate filled and brazen in its attempts at deception I feel pretty safe in saying he is not the one we need. He voted with Dubya 90%+ of the time and helped to bring our nation to its knees, as we watch the global economy begin to spiral down the toilet as a result the course of action should be clear.
Once he is in office then it will be time to explore and lobby for a new syste (Instant Runoff Voting comes readily to mind) that will enhance democracy by making third party candidates viable without being “Vote wasters.”
Come on people, this is too important to screw up.
-Loki HumidCity Founder
October 9th, 2008 at 7:33 am
Well said, and well done.
October 9th, 2008 at 9:01 am
Yes. Very Well Said.
Obama had me early on but that interview did it too.
Why indeed…
Y’all go say Hi to Tab this weekend!
http://www.voiceofthewetlands.com/vowfest.html
Editilla
October 9th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Nothing Obama has ever said feels genuine to me. I know who McCain is, he’s been around forever. Obama? No idea. He seems to be everything to everybody, with all the answers to the hard questions, but how much is real?
I won’t be voting for Obama for one reason: Windfall Profits Tax. I’m not so young I can’t remember what happened to us the last time. There’s absolutely nothing that McCain or Palin can do in four years that can hurt us as much or for as long as that one action.
I have other reasons, but that’s the only one I need.
October 9th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
I share your enthusiasm for instant runoff voting. However, there is one problem. A lot of people don’t know what it is or how it works. I am trying to solve this problem with a website called http://www.TheVotingSite.com. TheVotingSite is a place where users can create and share content. Basically, users create surveys and elections. Other users vote in these surveys and are able to watch the instant runoff voting results in action. I think this is a great way to educate the Youtube and Facebook generation about instant runoff voting. I hope you check out my site.
October 10th, 2008 at 4:09 am
This is why I’m planning to vote for Ron Paul. I can’t complaint (i.e. write scathing commentaries on my blogs) if I don’t vote. Not being a impressed by either McCain or Obama, I can escape blame when the country goes to hell in either candidate’s handbasket while having performed my civic duty and earning the right to bitch about how awful McCain/Obama is. Everybody wins! Well, actually, everybody loses.
October 10th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
I didn’t think Ron Paul would be on any ticket this year? I wish he was. Tell me I’m wrong and I’ll be happy. (Or are you completely joking, Fitz, and I have no idea since I don’t know you?)
I am probably going to cast a third party vote for SOMEONE/ANYONE. I’ll make my vote count in that way — showing support for third party tickets in general since neither presidential candidate is warming my buns.
Also: http://www.thirdpartyticket.com
October 11th, 2008 at 11:23 am
Oh ,Bullet. That’s so romantic, voting according to your ‘feelings’ about someone. It just makes me all warm inside and I forget about their lies and misrepresentations and flip flopping and Bush voting and even the Keating Five.
The fact that he’s ‘been around forever’ really makes me feel safe (even though he hasn’t done anything he speaks of in the 25+ years he’s been in politics).
Yeah, that Obama is a wild card we don’t know enough about. That bastard didn’t come over and read all the infoprmation that’s out there as abedtime story, so how the hell should we figure it out ourselves?
Before I met my wife I didn’t know her, either. Having to get to know someone new is terrifying. Something different might happen. And things are going so well….
October 11th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
I’m sorry. I just take anymore of this stupid shite.
“I am probably going to cast a third party vote for SOMEONE/ANYONE. I’ll make my vote count in that way…”
Which way is that? Throwing it away to a stranger with 2% of the vote to prove that you’re a loyal American?
Obama “seems to be everything to everybody, with all the answers to the hard questions…”
Well that dirty bastard. How dare he have actual answers to problems without having you over for tea first.
And my personal favorite: “This is why I’m planning to vote for Ron Paul. I can’t complaint (i.e. write scathing commentaries on my blogs) if I don’t vote.”
Well now. If I’d known the Election of the Highest Office in the Most Powerful Country on Earth was really all about your personal blogs, I would have dressed up.
I am sickened beyond reason to listen to so many whining self important entitled people cry about getting exactly what they want, the way they want to get it, or else they’ll throw away any meaningful contribution to deciding on issues like MARTIAL FUCKING LAW being inacted with training starting October 1st, 2008.
I have lived in countries where we walked miles to the one & only store to see what they had that day. You all would have fucking starved, waiting for your favorite Ben & Jerry’s.
I almost hope McCain wins. I’ll go back to some little Island I used to live on and leave you all here to compalin about the itchy clothes they gave you at the draft board and interment camps.
America is in a fight for the life of the Constitution and all I hear is blogger tears. This is how it all begins….
5% for Nader, 3% for Bob Barr, 4% for Ron Paul and suddenly Obama is 12% short, giving McCain a win with 42%.
Then you’ll all be crying about it again with Big Talk for Next Time. Except there may not be one.
Please practice and repeat:
Mooooooooo
October 11th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Freudian slip: I mis-spelled it ‘compalin’.
That’s just creepy.
October 11th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
So an opinion that differs from yours is “stupid”? Ok. You just gave a shining example of why I detest discussing/debating most issues. Normally, I wouldn’t even bother responding to someone who begins their diatribe in such an infantile way, but I guess I’m bored tonight.
I don’t consider voting for a third party candidate “throwing away” my vote, and for what it’s worth, I find it pretty sad that you do. I just don’t like either of the two major party candidates enough to vote for them. And I’m not going to not vote, so I’ll show support for the idea that we need more than two serious choices to consider each election year.
October 12th, 2008 at 9:01 am
I never said an idea that differs from mine is stupid.
If you detest debating, perhaps it’s because changing what another says so it fits your argument doesn’t really work.
My point is simple:
A) When you vote for a principle, instead of a candidate, the worse candidate gets more votes.
B) In this particular time, place and election, the worse candidate could easily make what you believe in illegal, therefore eliminating any possibility of ever getting what you want.
C) While you’re patting yourself on the back for voting for Ron Paul ( I would have if he could win), try turning on your TV when President Palin reveals her plan for mandatory teaching of creationism in public schools.
When the current Republican Administration is corrupting the Constitution (like removing Posse Comitatus, which makes it illegal for US troops to polive US Citizens on home soil. This has already happened), what makes you think that, la la la, we’ll change it for next time.
I’m suggesting that we support the candidate who will allow us the freedom to continue to make changes, such as doing away with the two party system, which I also see as failed.
Listen people, we are in the midst of a slow motion Coup Detat, and while many of us are sitting back, mulling the ‘perfect candidate’ our civil liberties are being taken away. What if there isn’t a “Next Time”?
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/10/7/us_army_denies_unit_will_be
October 12th, 2008 at 9:32 am
An exceprt from the above link:
“we looked at National Security Presidential Directive 51, that he (BUsh) signed on May 9th of 2007, this gives the President enormous powers to declare a catastrophic emergency and to bypass our regular system of laws, essentially, to impose a form of martial law.
And if you look at that National Security Presidential Directive, what it says, that in any incident where there is extraordinary disruption of a whole range of things, including our economy, the President can declare a catastrophic emergency. Well, we’re having these huge disturbances in our economy. President Bush could today pick up that National Security Directive 51 and say, “We’re in a catastrophic emergency. I’m going to declare martial law, and I’m going to use this combat brigade to enforce it.”
October 12th, 2008 at 11:05 am
Has it occured to any independent voters that what I’m getting at is preventing the slow abolition of the Constitution, the very same platform that Ron Paul put forward, that caused him to be ignored by his party & the press, just as you’re ignoring it now?
October 12th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
“I’m sorry. I just take anymore of this stupid shite.”
October 12th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
my sunday afternoon was spent being bipartisan. I watched on FOXnews which I STAY away from… a special on Barry Obama… and a special on McCain. After my two hour moment of bipartisan, I am still voting for Obama. I just see a huge difference between them, on one hand, McCain “the carpetbagger” in arizona, the trophy wife, beer heiress, leaves his life of military, becomes a beer baby, then uses new wifes money to get into arizona politics, then a wife on drugs, rehab, then the hostage situation, McCain snaps and leaves beer baby life to “get back into the game”… He stands for money, power, greed… then Keating 5ive, and now riling the masses and creating a huge mob mentality, and choosing a bimbo, who also is creating even more mob mentality. I don’t think I want that in the white house.
Obama may be young, but I do believe he’s for change. I know Punahou, the school he went to, I know the first chapters of his life… to hear the rest seems to be a man with ambition, who wishes to strive for a political career, and to help others. His mistakes have been there, as they have for all, but I see him with one car, one house, a wife, kids, and you can see his ambition… He chooses to listen to those who are more experienced. I don’t think he’s unstable, but rather wanting to stabilize.
When I saw the ballots for new york, and the misspelling of his name, it reminded me of florida’s mismanaged voting. To see such a BLATANT mistake this early, only tells me that the republicans will stop at nothing to cause fear. Fear of change.
The third party needs to come forward NOW, and organize for the next four years, get on the ballot, and get something done. Until they do, all they succeed in, is taking away votes..
To the guy in my bar the other night who wasn’t voting? I don’t care to even hear your opinion.
To everyone else, quit bitchin…. start a revolution. I think you’ll find the majority of americans ready for one…
October 12th, 2008 at 11:08 pm
I apologize to you, Rachelle, for calling anything you, or anybody else, had to say, stupid. We are all entitled to our opinions and the right to express them. So far.
Anyway, I have never met somebody I couldn’t learn something from, even if it’s just how bad my manners can be. Please forgive me. Seriously.
On the subject of Independent Voting, please refer to this site, which gives a breakdown of votes in the 2000 Presidential election. Discounting the ‘Florida Debacle’, it’s still rather obvious that the 2.74% of the vote that went to Ralph Nader did absolutely nothing towards launching a multiple party system (or we’d have one), although it took just enough away from Al Gore to give us the last eight years of George Bush.
Look here:
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0876793.html
I rest my case.
Let’s not do this again, please.
I can’t take another eight years of these criminal assholes.
October 13th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
You want to talk about feelings? Obama certainly feels good. He’s got nothing to back it up except words. I see no substance to Obama, just a lot of pretty, feel-good slogans and a pack of pandering half truths, lies and weak-ass promises.
Half-truth:
“I didn’t know Jeremiah Wright was a racist fuck.”
“I didn’t really talk to Franklin Raines.”
“The Democrats have always been a party of faith.”
Lied:
FISA flip-flop
Public money pledge
Promises: Go here
Yes, it’s nice to get to know someone new, but not when he has this much power over my livelihood. I’d like to know somebody a little bit before I hand him my paycheck to redistribute.
Your assuming McCain is going to be as bad as Bush is just as bad as my assuming Obama is going to be as bad as Carter.
I rest my case? I know the whole Nader thing. Waah. If my indie vote costs Obama the election then I guess he’s not the guy everyone thinks he is. I’m tired of hearing “landslide” from the Democratic Party followed up with, “Don’t waste your vote, we need it.” It’s shit like that that makes people stay home. And the people who stay home would be voting for your candidate. Call Republicans all the names you want, they vote.
Man, I’ll be so happy when this shit is over.
October 13th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
Dear Bullet;
So far, considering your posts here, you’re the Hate Pundit.
Barack Obama has a lengthy history of senatorial activity, chairing an educatiuonal commitee for a dozen years, etc.
You haven’t given one iota of actual factual information, just a lot of your personal crap. Perhaps study and facts are beyond your grasp.
I know, I know, you’re gonna want to call me names again.
How about an intelligent arguement based on history, information and insight, with actual footnotes and verification?
All I hear from you is hate and bitching.
Please drive through.
Man, I’ll be so happy when your shit is over.
October 13th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
PS; when I say “How about an intelligent arguement based on history, information and insight, with actual footnotes and verification?” I don’t mean the site you linked with a lot of inuendo in the form of biased and iflamitory questions asked and answered by anti-Obama writers, like what you gave us.
Anybody could find a mis-information site based on their own belief system and link to it.
How about hard bipartisan fact, voting records or any kind of real proof?
I know it’s hard to find, there amongst your feelings and general distrust. Maybe it’s under that GED you intended to get some day, or by that copy of White American Magazine…
October 18th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Yep,
If you don’t pay income tax and and like being told exactly what you want to hear, sign up for Obamanomics
October 19th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
As opposed to say, being lied to constantly about one’s own senatorial record, as well as Obama’s, and gleefully watching Exxon get another 4 billion dollar tax break?
You betcha.