Let me first disclose my age, I am 28 years old and have been actively following this years presidential campaign, as I did in 2000, and 2004. I lived as a child/ teen during the Reagan/Bush/Clinton years, but I was still vaguely aware of the disingenuous nature and character flaws of each president. Whether it was Reagan and Bush’s racial insensitivity and indifference to the poor, or Clinton’s philandering along with the lies and distortions concerning the issue, I viewed my childhood presidents as dishonest and immoral men.
During the 2000 and 2004 campaigns, I was unimpressed and uninspired by both Democratic candidates. In 2000 I found Gore to be stiff, boring and dare I say an "elitist" out of touch snob. In 2004, Kerry’s "I voted for the war before I voted against it" and "had I known then what I know now" campaign was pathetic, an embarrassment to Democrats and reeked of weakness. In both elections, I voted merely to remove "he who shall not be named" from office and both attempts failed due to our poor candidates. In 2007, I had hope in Obama because of his early opposition to the war, grass roots campaign, and his amazing ability to genuinely connect with people of all stripes. Little did I know it was all one big performance.
As we all know, the minute Obama captured our party’s nomination, he began to alter his positions on a number of issues like FISA, campaign finance, gun laws, NAFTA, etc, etc. He even went as far as to call some of his own rhetoric in the primary, "overstated" and "exaggerated". Now I don’t find fault with OBAMA or any politician taking a position I disagree with, but what I don’t respect is political dishonesty, misrepresentation, and pandering, especially from a candidate who has branded and financed his campaign(quite lucratively) campaigning against this very behavior . In addition to this, this months New Yorker article http://www.newyorker.com/... reveals that Obama was quite shrewd and very complicit with machine politics during his rise politically in Illinois. The article brings to surface that the flip flopping disingenuous general election Obama is who he has always been. It has been disturbing to find out that he has never, in reality, been the agent of change that he has falsely portrayed himself.
As a Democrat and an American citizen, I feel used, abused, and demoralized like never before. What makes OBAMA the biggest fraud in my lifetime is that unlike other politicians who have aspired for office, I actually had faith and trust in his words, now I have none. Obama’s past and present opportunistic political maneuvering contributes to why millions don’t vote, are disillusioned with politics, and have little faith in their government.