Friday, November 07, 2008

Are You Sick of Me Talking about Obama Yet?

Wow. I think part of me didn't really expect him to win. Or at least not to survive assassination.

When I published the first draft of my last post, I'd just voted and nobody knew the results yet. Now we do, and I'm gonna have to put up with four years of my friends and family bellyaching about how awful my presidential pick is.

Yesterday I got my first real misgiving about voting for Hussein Osama. A Navy vet friend of mine was telling me how he heard Obama was going to reduce funding for troops in Iraq, essentially leaving them unsupported in doing their job. My friend said in effect (and this is NOT a direct quote), "They should either take the troops out of Iraq or else give them what they need to do the job."

I agree. I felt terrible that I voted for a man who would half-assedly leave American servicepeople to fight a war they didn't have the funds or wherewithal to fight properly. I didn't even have the guts to tell my friend I voted for Obama. Then I went back to the U.S. News and World Report "Ultimate Voter's Guide" to remind myself of what I'd read Obama's stance had actually been on Iraq. I have to admit to using the info in btoh U.S. News and Newsweek to make my decision last Tuesday--damn liberal media.

Anyway, here are some quotes from U.S. News and World Report about Obama's stand on Iraq, to clear up any possible misconceptions:

Afghanistan, Obama says, should be America's top priority. He says Iraq "never was" the central front in the war on terrorism and has called for withdrawing U.S. combat forces within 16 months of taking office, leaving behind up to 60,000 troops for support missions. The shift would free up more troops for Afghanistan and cut down on Iraq war expenditures--now some $10 billion a month.
Bottom line. Iraq is less violent but remains deeply unsettled. Obama will have trouble pulling out combat forces as quickly as he wants, while McCain will quickly run into the limitations of a strained U.S. military. Because U.S. troops cannot be two places at once, Americans may have to decide where the greatest threat now lies: in Iraq or in Afghanistan.


--Mulrine, Anna. "Iraq" subheading in "Where McCain and Obama Stand." U.S. News and World Report, Oct. 27, 2008. Page 50.

From the same issue:

THE FLIP: In January 2007, Obama introduced a bill that would have removed all U.S. combat troops from Iraq by the end of March 2008. During the campaign, he has pledged to remove combat forces within 16 months of taking office. THE FLOP: Over time, he has said he might "refine" that pledge based on advice from commanders and the situation on the ground. THE BOTTOM LINE: His original proposal allowed for some flexibility on the timetable, and his aides say that Obama would keep up to 60,000 support troops in Iraq past the deadline. Either way, new qualifiers keep emerging.


--Reske, Henry J. "Measuring the Candidates' Flip-Flops." U.S. News and World Report, Oct. 27, 2008. Page 53.

There is the possibility that tjose 60,000 support troops could be the type of under-supported Vietnam-type troops that military-boosting opponents of Obama fear. I can't prove that it isn't

It should be noted, however, that even McCain, in saying he could keep troops in Iraq a hundred years, qualified his remarks by saying that would only be "as long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed" --U.S. News said he was "comparing it to Japan or Korea."

[see U.S. News, Oct. 27, 2008, page 54, author unknown--I have to admit this is from an article on both candidates' spins, including Obama's.]

So all in all, I think Obama isn't going to pull a Vietnam on us, at least so far as he's able. Maybe it's the wrong decision tactically or strategically or whatever, and I really, really, really hope that such a tactical miscalculation won't result in more American body bags, but based on the info I have now, I think it's as good a decision as we have the option of.

Ideally, I don't want any of our boys and girls (especially not my one other friend still in the Army National Guard) to die in Afghanistan either. However, considering that the war on terror is probably not being staged in a Hollywood studio the way the moon landing was, we might have to stay there, and if we're going to stay in Afghanistan, that's all the more reason for us to ease out of Iraq if we can. And remember: Obama said he'll listen to his generals as far as Iraq goes, and if he does, they won't let him repeat Vietnam.

And if I'm wrong, I apologize for the blood on my hands.

By the way, I just saw this: http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Politics/13056.htm I don't know if it's real, and if it is, I don't know if it was some kind of mistake, and if it's not--well, I dunno.

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Fried Fetuses and Watermelon

Well, I did it. I voted for Obama. God help us all.

If he gets elected, it's obvious that anything bad that will happen during his presidency would not have happened during a McCain presidency, because that's how it works.

It's too late now to try to talk about why people should vote a certain way (if I even wanted to talk about that). Instead, we can talk about how people did vote and why. Well, we don't know the results yet, but you know what I mean.

It's strange. In '04, liberals didn't vote for Kerry so much as they voted against Bush: they hated Bush (as they still do) but couldn't get excited about Kerry. This time around, however, liberals seem to be voting for Obama instead of simply against McCain--there doesn't seem to be much in the way of outright hatred toward McCain from the liberals that I have seen, and Obama has, needless to say, excited liberals quite a bit.

For my part, McCain seemed a bit like my dad: a good guy you can respect, but with some ideas about how to run things that ultimately aren't good for the country.

Now there are good reasons and bad reasons to vote a certain way. I'm sure there are plenty of people who voted for McCain--or declined to vote at all--either because they support McCain or because they have serious misgivings about Obama. Of course, many people have misgivings about Obama, but not all of these are what I'd call serious drawbacks as much as Republican scare tactics.

Here are some of the reasons I voted for Obama, which I consider to be good reasons:

* supporting his desire to draw out combat troops in Iraq, and fight terrorism smarter
* prefering his healthcare plan to McCain's (as far as I can tell)
* thinking he seems to have good temperment and intelligence
* supporting his desire to cut taxes on the lower end of the economic spectrum (where I am!) and on basically concentrating on "bottom up" economic strategies

I have to admit--in the back of my mind I thought there was a chance that maybe electing half-Kenyan Barack Hussein Obama might increase our standing somewhat among people in other countries, specifically people who might be pursuaded by other people to support killing us. Giving Obama brownie points for his father's background essentially means giving him points for his race, which I do not think would be a good idea by itself (see below). However, I consider this possibility of raised foreign esteem to be a side benefit. If I hadn't thought his policies and leadership were good for the country, I would not consider the chance for some slight uptick in foreign people liking us to be worth it.

I voted for Obama, but I almost didn't. Here are what I consider some good reasons to vote against Obama:

* lack of experience
* disagreement with him on some issue(s), such as (in my case) abortion
* similarly, wariness about the ballooning deficit and whether his proposals may increase it

I can understand, as someone who almost didn't vote for Obama, why someone would oppose Obama being president on those grounds. Now here are what I'm sure you'll agree are some bad reasons for voting against Obama:

* because he's black (though of course no one's doing that)
* because you think he's a Muslim
* because you think he's some kind of super-socialist caricature intent on getting our kindergarteners to fornicate while formenting "class warfare" and also somehow managing to be an ultraconservative Muslim at the same time (I consider this different than merely having a disagreement, ideological or otherwise, about his platform)

Frankly, I think class warfare is a good idea, inasmuch as it's already going on. I think a lot of Reverend Wright's words were taken out of context and I personally can't get too excited even if they weren't, I don't quite know why. I think it's a good thing that Obama has ties to students of Saul Alinsky--Saul was the man.

A lot of this discussion rests on whether Obama actually is a "closet radical" like his enemies fear and many of his supporters hope. This only time will tell. While I personally have mixed feelings about socialism in general, I kind of doubt he is a closet radical, what with all those capitalist economic advisors. And whether you have good reasons or stupid rich-person reasons for opposing socialism, I think we can all agree there probably isn't going to be the dawning of the People's Republic of Barackistan if he gets elected.

But even if you don't agree with me on the coolness of class warfare, you still should repeat these magic words:

"Barack Obama is not a Muslim."

Whether it would matter if he were Muslim is moot. He's not. That's it.

Which leads us to talk about people voting against Obama because he's black. Or anyway it would if people had done that, because we all know that nobody would ever think of such a thing, certainly not anyone we know, and we are insulted that anyone would stoop to such accusations.

But if people were to oppose Obama because of his race (how silly of me to even consider!), the race factor would be closely tied to thinking he's Muslim and thinking he's Fidel Castro. Race in America, any pundit can tell you, is waaay too fuckin' complicated. Those kind of associations (non-white/Muslim terrorist, non-white/socialist) tend to crop up in us crackers' minds. Heck, I voted for Obama's black ass like a good college-y liberal, and I can't even say I don't have some racist thoughts and tendencies somewhere back in the cobwebby attic of my brain.

Just letting you know I'm not being self-righteous about my vote.

Seriously, though, I actually think (as of this morning, the fourth) that I've made the right decision. It's not normal for me to think I've made the right decision about anything, so that's saying something. Of course he could be the antichrist and bring the world to destruction in December 2012, but I guess that's meant to be.

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