Of course I’m voting for Obama – 322.5

Actually, I already voted for him. We did our ballots Sunday night.

Yes, I did support Hilary in the primary, but Ralph Nader aside, there has in fact been a huge difference between the two candidates for this election and the past two, and voting for someone who is completely ideologically opposed to you because of sour grapes is idiotic. (And adding a woman to the other ticket is not really conciliatory based on what woman was added.)

Yes, there was a time when I seriously considered voting for McCain, many years ago, and he seemed like a completely different person. Rich Lowry of the National Review had an interesting piece yesterday on how McCain’s career has been built on being a gadfly, so when he would take principled stands on various areas in opposition to his party, it was more that he liked being the truth-teller, standing in opposition, than that he had a thorough understanding of the issue and strong beliefs. Looking over the past few years, it makes a lot of sense, and I think in times like these we are better off with a policy wonk who will think things out and strive for intelligent solutions, rather than a contrarian who will simply be looking for an argument.

I myself had expressed concerns about his lack of accomplishments and experiences, feeling it was a little arrogant of him to run so soon, but I understand the need to capitalize on the moment. Besides, apparently a lack of long-term experience makes you refreshingly untouched and uncorrupt, which can be wonderful if you are not an idiot (and he is not, but someone else inexperienced in the race is).

Speaking of Sarah Palin, I am amazed at how much I despise her. When she was first tapped I kind of thought it was a stroke of brilliance. After all, suddenly you have a woman on the ticket, and generally you need your running mate to be more extreme than you. From what I had known of Palin already, that was true, especially on the issues of abortion and oil drilling, and apparently guns as well.

This was August 29th, though, and so I really did not see much more of her before we left. I saw a few pictures, and read about her disdain for community organizers. The first time I ever heard her speak was watching the news in Australia. I knew that there had been a gaffe with someone asking about her reading habits, but what I saw was her response later, when she mentioned some interesting reading about Obama’s terrorist associations. The story itself is a pretty sleazy thing to bring up, because it is so immaterial and yet they link it with the T-word and so it is just the basest kind of demagoguery, and yet that wasn’t surprising. What else do they have really?

What was surprising was how poorly she speaks. There are all these long pauses between the words—I think she actually might be a worse speaker than Bush, and I wasn’t expecting that. Oh yeah, people who were upset about Clinton not getting the nomination should totally vote for McCain-Palin. They’re exactly alike. [end sarcasm]

Palin has irritated me still more by her claim of exoneration after the committee investigating “Troopergate”. We had just seen the story the previous day. The bipartisan committed concluded unanimously that there was a breach of ethics and abuse of power, and if Palin had just said that she was pleased to have been exonerated of any criminal wrongdoing that would be one thing, but she added “any hint of any kind of unethical activity there.” Huh? So, yeah, I basically hate her.

However, I do not wish to leave you with the impression that I am supporting Obama due to simple elimination of the most objectionable, and he happens to be the one left. I feel like he is intelligent and ethical, and although there is a huge mess to be resolved and I don’t have great hopes for any mere mortal, he is the best of the contenders.

For one thing, I appreciate the way he can listen intelligently. I had serious doubts about watching the last debate, because really, nothing was going to change my mind and so it seemed like it would just be a waste of time. However, it was interesting to watch them, and I was impressed with how he held himself. He listened to the points made by McCain, sometimes he made notes, and when he answered, he answered with confidence and intelligence. McCain seemed really squirmy, unable to respect an opinion other than his own, and honestly, I thought it was really dirty eight years ago when Bush was questioning his mental stability but now I kind of do.

In addition, I have gained a better sense of Obama’s ability to inspire. People all over the world are watching this election, and they are hoping for a change, where there is an America they can respect again. No one gave us grief for being American, but none of them like Bush. I asked one guide about that, and he said he never met anyone who admitted to voting for Bush. Maybe that’s true. If you are traveling the world and getting outside this ethnocentric mindset where of course we can invade Iraq if we want too, it gets kind of hard for you to support Bush.

Remember, we didn’t just take to Australians and New Zealanders. We talked to Belgians, Swiss, English, French, Shanghainese, Fijian, Scottish, and Italian. One of the Belgians had actually seen Obama in Germany, and said it was amazing. Seven years ago the United States suffered a terrible tragedy, but received an amazing outpouring of support from all over the world. Instead of building on that, our leaders have worked hard to alienate countries all over, and killed the memory of the time when we were an example. The world would like that time back, and it seems possible to them.

The world gets smaller all the time and it is an amazing thing, but it increases the need for us to get along, and that involves not being bullies. I think we have a clear choice.