Today I read how baby boomer women (1 in 6 women in the 2004 election) are one of the most prized blocks of undecided voters
White women age 45 to 64, evenly divided between Barack Obama and John McCain, and wide open to being pulled either way, according to a recent Associated Press-GfK Poll.
I am a strong supporter of Obama (flew to Montana to volunteer this past spring) but in my circle of friends and family (scattered across Colorado, Washington and Arizona) there are still undecided voters. I wish that Obama would draw on the same courage and fore-sight he had to stand up to the war in Iraq and stand on the third rail of politics and propose cutting the military budget.
He did early in the campaign (in fact one of the best utube videos was put out by people who oppose him).
Often we hear how values (every parent wants to protect and provide for their family) drive issues (the war and the economy) but I rarely hear anyone tell us that we can no longer afford to spend over 1/2 of our discretionary budget on the military and that doesn't include the war.
About three-fifths of the federal budget covers expenses that are written into law, including payment on the national debt, Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. This is usually called "mandatory" or "entitlement" spending.
The part of the budget that the President and Congress create each year is called the discretionary budget. In the just-concluded fiscal year, more than half of the discretionary budget for a toal amount of $463 billion was spent by the Pentagon and $711 for next year. These dollars don't include funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan , nor do they include most homeland security programs, which are paid for in other areas of the budget.
They want someone to stand up and say that investing in our kids, health, schools and infrastructure are more important then spending 17 billion a year on nuclear missiles, the military and tax breaks for sports stadiums when they are closing the library to save money. They want someone like Obama who has the time and the intellectual capacity to understand the Kolb Report
without diminishing America’s ability to fight extremists,
America can save $60 billion mostly by eliminating Cold War-era weapons systems designed to thwart the former Soviet Union – weapons and programs that are not useful in defending our country from extremists or the other threats we now face.
when they don't have time to because they are working, buying groceres, taking care of elderly parents and paying the bills.
They need to know that Senator Obama will stop us from wasting money (17 billion a year) on nuclear missles (we have the equivalent of 150,000 hiroshima nuclear sized weapons). when only 90 would destroy all of Russia and we have no intention of using even one of them. The money we save would be enough to rebuild all of our schools and provide head start to every child that needs it.
They want someone like Senator Obama to stand up and tell us that real security is economic and not military and that investing in living wage jobs are as important as investing in the stock market. That he isn't afraid of cutting the military budget by 1/2 or 1/3 since it is still more then all other nations combined.
That creating jobs for nurses and school teachers is more important then building military tankers with non-union jobs. That the next war will be economic and we are already in the middle of it and he has a plan to get us out. What happens when China one day calls us up and tells us that they aren't going to buy our debt or send the container ships any longer? Who can anticipate that and have a non-military plan ready? Senator Obama.
We need a leader like Senator Obama who knows that our reliance on foreign credit is far more dangerous then our reliance on foreign oil and that as a nation we need to invest not only in green jobs but manufacturing jobs.
A leader who can regain the respect our allies in Europe and who can ask our friends in the Middle East to use their billions from oil to solve the problem in Iraq because we are leaving it with our apologizes.
They don't want the best "Commander in Chief" they want someone to Lead us economically and stand side by side with them and socially and morally. Someone like Senator Obama and Michelle who understand what it is like to work and raise children and know that education is the great equalizer. That he not only understands their lives but has the support of most of their friends to make their children's lives better.
Kids for Obama parade last Saturday in Seattle at greenlake.
Someone like Senator Obama, who knows from personal experience and from deep in his soul that how we treat the least of those amongst us defines us as a Nation.