The other day I was talking with my mom. She was a Clinton supporter, and despite being a lifelong Democrat, her feelings about Obama were tepid at best. She also had trouble saying anything particular about Obama other than she had a general sense of unease about him.
I proceeded to launch into a bit of a diatribe about how Republican's are very good at making those on the left uncertain about our leaders. They are practiced in invective and produce a steady stream of it, most of it untrue, but often with a grain of truth or at least an idea that fits into our preconceived notions.
At any rate, my mom has an extensive e-mail list (she's one of those people e-mailing bad jokes). She's also 67 and has figured out how to use a computer. I told her I wanted to send a political e-mail to her friends. When I started writing that e-mail, I came up with the two lists in the body. Let me know what you all think.
(updated with helpful feedback).
Fifteen reasons why I am voting for Barack Obama:
- He loves America.
- His story is the American story. The story of extraordinary achievement when all the odds are stacked against you.
- He inspires.
- He's brilliant.
- He believes government can work for people.
- He understands America faces great challenges and has a great vision of how America can succeed despite the challenges.
- He will work to get the 47 million uninsured Americans health insurance.
- He rejects the idea that markets should be unregulated.
- He has the understanding to regulate markets soundly.
- He understood that the war in Iraq would be far more costly in blood and treasure than most of us expected.
- He will bring Osama Bin Laden to justice.
- He understands that fighting Al-Queada with a presence in 80 countries takes more than bombing Iraq.
- He is a friend of Israel's and will make finding a solution to the Israeli-Arab conflict a priority.
- He is intellectually curious.
- He is self-aware.
Fifteeen reasons why I am not voting for John McCain:
- He subscribes to the Republican mantra that government IS the problem.
- He takes economic advice from Phil Gramm who called America a nation of whiners--meanwhile our financial markets are melting down.
- He said "I am fundamentally a deregulator." "I am always for less regulation."
- He's voted against raising the minimum wage every time it has come to him for a vote.
- He is AGAINST a middle class tax cut
- He is FOR keeping the Bush tax giveaways on those most wealthy.
- He is unwilling to pay for the wars he wants to wage and would keep adding to our debt.
- Under his party's watch the Twin Towers were destroyed.
- He "knows" how to get Osama Bin Laden, but it is evidently a secret plan, that he will only implement once he is president.
- While he ate cake with George Bush on his birthday, Americans were left to die on the streets of New Orleans.
- For "the most important decision a candidate makes," McCain, a 72 year old cancer survivor, picked a person resolutely untested on the national stage to be 2nd in line to be the president after meeting with her only two times.
- He does not have a serious plan to provide health insurance to the uninsured.
- He wants strict constitutionalist for the supreme court, which is the litmus test for the anti-choice crusaders.
- He has waged the most dishonorable presidential campaign I have seen in my lifetime.
- In his book Worth the Fighting For he said, "I wanted to be president because it had become my ambition to be president. . . . In truth, I’d had the ambition for a long time."