Politicking

I don’t usually write about politics, but I just donated to the Obama campaign, and I thought you might be interested in a few of the reasons. (For some of my readers voting for Obama is a foregone conclusion, but I know others aren’t so sure. This is chiefly for them.)

1. Foreign policy. An Obama presidency gives the U.S. a shot at regaining some stature in the world. Every non-U.S. citizen I’ve met shakes their head grimly at the last eight years, and McCain’s approach to foreign policy isn’t significantly different from Bush’s, as far as I can tell. Obama, on the other hand, not only opposed our military adventurism in Iraq, but also has a serious commitment to taking on what I take to be the much bigger foreign policy issues (at least in terms of number of lives at stake): global poverty and AIDS. I can’t even find these issues mentioned on johnmccain.com.

   • http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1826064,00.html
   • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnb2IrsU1Cg
   • http://www.barackobama.com/issues/foreignpolicy/

2. The environment. As far as doing good for the poorest people in the world, climate change is the biggest issue right now—and this is an issue our government has to take an active role in. McCain admits that climate change is a real and serious issue, but a president will have a hard time leading where even his own party won’t follow. McCain even chose a vice president who is on record denying—this year—that climate change is a human problem. This does not bode well. This is a moral issue: it’s not just about the extinction of polar bears; we’re talking about spreading deserts (one of the big issues behind the Darfur genocide), loss of fresh water for the people already most pressed, and natural disasters in places much worse equipped for it than New Orleans.

   • http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1837868,00.html

3. The economy. Obama’s stance makes more sense than McCain’s: cutting services to save the wealthy’s investment capital isn’t what we need—now less than ever. (I’m reminded of Hoover vs. Roosevelt.) And in particular, McCain’s response this week has been embarrassing. His comments have been decried by the WSJ, and by rushing presidential politics into the midst of the bailout he’s seriously impeded the process.

   • http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91358156
   • http://blogs.venturacountystar.com/greenberg/archives/2008/08/deficits.html
   • https://donate.barackobama.com/firstdebatead
   • http://www.wsj.com/article/SB122178318884054675.html

4. McCain has run an unethical, dishonest campaign. That’s unacceptable.

   • http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-oped0914chapmansep14,0,4287762.column
   • http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/obama_campaign_launches_ad_hit.php

5. Palin. Even her one-time supporters are recognizing that Sarah Palin is way out of her depth, and she’s faking it, badly. This is worth taking seriously; she could be president.

   • http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/09/watching-palin.html

6. Abortion. I disagree with much of what Obama says about abortion (though my position is more moderate than it once was)—but even on this point I think he’s the better candidate. The fact is that Republican policies have generally led to an increase in the number of abortions. Why? Some of the main reasons women have abortions are poverty and lack of health care. And these are issues I think Obama will do much, much better on.

   • http://www.publicchristian.com/index.php?p=734
   • http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=sojomail.display&issue=041013#5

   Since you have to register to see the latter article, here’s an excerpt:

   When President Bush took office, the nation’s abortion rates were at a 24-year low, after a 17.4% decline during the 1990s. This was an average decrease of 1.7% per year, mostly during the latter part of the decade. (This data comes from Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life using the Guttmacher Institute’s studies).

   Enter George W. Bush in 2001. One would expect the abortion rate to continue its consistent course downward, if not plunge. Instead, the opposite happened.

   …Under President Bush, the decade-long trend of declining abortion rates appears to have reversed. Given the trends of the 1990s, 52,000 more abortions occurred in the United States in 2002 than would have been expected before this change of direction.

Those are some of my main considerations. I’m interested to know if you agree with them; if there are things you think I’m getting wrong, you can let me know. These issues are important enough to warrant talking about, and hopefully getting right together.