30 January 2008 - Endorsement: John McCain for President
Yesterday, I sent away for my absentee ballot so I can vote in Tuesday's "Super Tuesday" primary elections in my home state of Illinois. There are a number of important contests. One of the most interesting is the Ninth District's Democratic primary, in which incumbent Jan Schakowsky is being challenged for the first time. For the first time in my life, however, I asked for a Republican ballot.
I am voting for John McCain. If you care about both security and human rights, as I do, McCain is the best candidate. He backed the U.S. troop surge in Iraq when no one else would. He opposed the use of torture when no other Republican would. In addition, no other candidate projects more optimism about America and faith in what it stands for--not even Barack Obama.
I admire Obama, and I think he would make a fine President, but I have found myself disagreeing with him on the issues, from the economy to the war on terror. I also think a withdrawal from Iraq--even the staged withdrawal Obama is proposing--would be a disaster for the U.S. and the world at this point. There are other good candidates in the race. McCain is simply the best.
posted by Joel @ 6:56 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
I find Americans campaigns nauseating, I always imagine it must be like living in an advert, where you are the product. Why anyone would do it to themselves I still am not sure. A reporter wrote a book on his experience covering John Kerry's campaign "Spanking the donkey" (I think), he concluded that if it wasn't for the drugs he would have killed himself.
Its all about creating a mythology around a single individual. Personality politics not policy. I don't care if McCain "projects more optimism about America and faith in what it stands for" than any other candidate. I care what he is going to do in office.
I actually like McCain, I respect that he has been prepared to sacrifice his campaign in order to support unpopular positions (very rare in a candidate). However Bush has the same characteristics, he holds very firmly onto his positions. Is that such a good thing?
McCain has stated that American might be in Iraq for another 100 years. He is more likely to listen to American generals and he has actually seen war, but he seems to be painting himself into a corner with such rhetoric.
This is getting overly long so I'll end off with a quote from Gore Vidal, the American author:
"Every four years the naive half who vote are encouraged to believe that if we can elect a really nice man or woman President everything will be all right. But it won't be. Any individual who is able to raise $25 million to be considered presidential is not going to be much use to the people at large. He will represent oil, or aerospace, or banking, or whatever moneyed entities are paying for him. Certainly he will never represent the people of the country, and they know it. Hence, the sense of despair throughout the land as incomes fall, businesses fail and there is no redress."
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