Well, Tuesday is primary day in VA, MD and DC so get out there and VOTE! No pressure, but you can see who Jake and Sadie are rooting for:
We went to the Obama rally on Sunday at TC Williams high school. We were going to bring the kids, thinking it would be fun for them to look back on when they got older, but we decided to bring
Erin & Fred, who ended up being much more patient with all the waiting in lines than the kids would have been. It turns out that they handed out too many tickets and about 700 of us were directed to an auditorium where they were going to pipe in the audio from the big gymnasium. We were pretty disappointed, but decided to stick around since we'd waited over two hours. We heard Gov. Kaine over the loudspeakers, welcoming the huge crowd, and doing some introductions. It reminded me of the old "fireside chats" where everyone crowded around radios to listen to FDR. He said Barack would be out shortly, and a few minutes later, a bunch of serious looking guys in suits and earpieces came into our auditorium, followed by Barack Obama. He thanked us for coming and apologized for running out of room. He talked to us for a few minutes and then did the rope-line thing for a bit, and shook the hand of a little boy about Jake's age who was sitting in the row in front of us. If I can just Photoshop that kid's hair blond, we'll just pretend Jake was there with us.
Here's Barack apologizing for the overflow room, joined by Gov. Tim Kaine, Congressman Jim Moran, and the Mayor of Alexandria who gave an awkward speech about kids being on a "high" about Obama-- but not that kind of "high".
Either Clinton or Obama would be a vast improvement over Bush, but if you're still undecided, here are my top 10 reasons to vote Obama:
1) Obama is not George W. Bush or George H.W. Bush or Bill Clinton or Hilary Clinton or Jeb Bush for that matter. We've already had TWENTY YEARS of Bush/Clinton, do we need another four or eight? If we saw this in another country, we'd call it an oligarchy, not a democracy.
2) Obama only has four years of experience in Washington. This isn't a liability. This means he isn't entrenched in the system. As a contrast, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld combined have almost 80 years of experience in Washington.
3) Obama and Clinton have very similar policy proposals. Their health care reform proposals are about 95 percent identical, for instance. For reasons mostly outside of Hillary's control, she would face stiff opposition from many in Congress who will simply refuse to work with her, making her proposals less likely to become law.
4) Hillary has often referred to the vast Right Wing Conspiracy and the constant attacks on her or her husband. She's either correct and will have a difficult time building consensus (see Point 3) or she's paranoid, which will also make it difficult for her to work with Congress.
5) If you're a woman and tired of seeing white male Presidents, I don't blame you. I like change too. But out of 535 US Senators and Representatives, there are only 43 blacks and only 82 women. Who's more deserving? The best candidate. Regardless of race or gender.
6) Obama has a better chance of beating McCain. Republican voters, at least according to polls, don't have fond memories of the Clintons. This isn't Hillary's fault for the most part, but it's an uphill battle she'll have to fight. Obama has shown an ability to win over independent voters, and Republican voters give him a higher favorable rating than any other Democrat who ran for president this cycle.
7) Obama will be more effective in repairing our reputation worldwide. First, he favors John Kennedy's approach of "Never negotiate out of fear, and never fear to negotiate". Clinton's campaign ridiculed Obama's suggestion that he might sit down with someone like Chavez. Is that really so crazy? How's our Cuba policy working out? Second, his name is Barack Hussein Obama and his father was a muslim. George W. Bush is a huge recruiting figure for young angry muslims. What will it say about our system of government if we can elect someone with that name and background? Will it make it more difficult for Al Qaeda to make their case against the US? I think it would, and I would be proud to demonstrate that our system is respectful of all backgrounds.
8) Obama doesn't accept money from PACs or registered lobbyists. He admits that this doesn't entirely fix the money-in-politics situation, but it shows a greater committment to the problem than the Clinton campaign has shown. Also, Obama's campaign has relied much more heavily on grass-roots contributions. Obama has twice the percentage of <$200 donors, and Clinton has three times the percentage of $4600 donors (the maximum allowed).
9) Michelle Obama is a great role model for young women, as is Hillary Clinton. No, it wouldn't be the same as being President, but she has shown she is a strong, outspoken, successful woman both in her profession and as a mother.
10) Obama speaks for the majority of Americans who fall in the middle of partisan politics. Contrary to the image of the talking heads on CNN and Fox News, most Americans aren't just passionate about a few fringe issues. I think most Americans simply want policies that help maintain a level playing field. I think Obama is the candidate that has the best proposals accomplish that.
