Why I'm Voting for Barack Obama: Part 1

I know I can come across as a hard-core Obama supporter on this blog, but in real life I remain suspicious. I do so because, while I like much of what he says in his speeches, believe his policies are better than McCain's and like the overall vision of America he represents, in the end, he is a politician. And politicians will say and do whatever they need to to get a vote; especially this time of year. I look at his voting record, for instance, and it doesn't really represent change. Instead, it represents the same in that Obama is a Democrat and he votes with Democrats 95% of the time. To be fair, Obama came from obscurity into the national spotlight in a short amount of time, and that would require strong party loyalty. Just look how long it took McCain to get his party's nomination. Yet I still find myself questioning: "Really Barry? Line by line? You're gonna be just as into cutting as you are into spending? We'll see..." But with that said, here's why I'm voting for him.

Foreign Policy
Foreign policy is the issue for me when it comes to this election. Iraq is the reason why I said, "HELL NO. I refuse to vote Republican this year." Sadly, there was a time when I argued for going to war in Iraq. I knew all the reasons. I had an air tight argument. But even that night when the news stations interrupted regular programming to tell the American people we had begun bombing, I had a queasiness in my stomach. "I hope this was the right decision" I thought. I was wrong. The war in Iraq was criminal. Members of the administration had wanted to invade Iraq since the Clinton years, and they used 911 to accomplish that end. It was a war based on ideology and blind faith. Because the administration had blinders on, it refused to listen to any dissenting information or intelligence. Bush was dead certain. Because of this abhorrent decision, over 4,000 young men and women are dead, and thousands more are coming back, their lives changed, from injuries sustained in combat. I won't even get into the hundreds of thousands who were killed in Iraq. And for what? Bin Laden is still out there. Afghanistan is going down the toilet. Iran is building nukes, and our hands are tied because we removed her enemy in Iraq. We are arguably less safer than when we initially invaded. And we have hurt our relations with our allies.

This last point was why I started questioning the war in the first place. After 911 we had the support of the world behind us. Some of our biggest critics were saying, "we are all Americans now." There was so much good that could have come from 911, but the administration squandered it's political capital on Iraq. And this leads me to Obama. In an increasingly globalized and pluralized world where America is on it's way to becoming one of many super powers, we need someone who can forge a strong relationship with the global community. McCain, with his support of the foreign policy of the last eight years, is not in the position to do this. Obama is the perfect person to accomplish this, with his stunning rhetorical skills and ability to mobilize the masses, he is the charismatic figure America needs to represent her to the world. He also has never supported the war in Iraq, and therefore does not carry it's baggage. His foreign policy views are complex and he refuses to see the world in the manachean way of the Bush administration. Fareed Zakaria says this:

"Obama rarely speaks in the moralistic tones of the current Bush administration. He doesn't divide the world into good and evil even when speaking about terrorism. He sees countries and even extremist groups as complex, motivated by power, greed and fear as much as by pure ideology. His interest in diplomacy seems motivated by the sense that one can probe, learn and possibly divide and influence countries and movements precisely because they are not monoliths. When speaking to me about Islamic extremism, for example, he repeatedly emphasized the diversity within the Islamic world, speaking of Arabs, Persians, Africans, Southeast Asians, Shiites and Sunnis, all of whom have their own interests and agendas."

And, also, because of this last point, if we are attacked again, I will feel much safer with a President Obama in the White House. I am confident he'll provide sane leadership in a time when the populace is seeing red.