Thursday, July 10, 2008

Why I Won't Vote for Barack Obama

Voting is a grave responsibility. When one casts one's ballot he votes for the kind of future he wants for his children and grandchildren. John McCain would not ordinarily be my first choice for President, but he is, by my lights, far more qualified for the office than is Barack Obama.

Obama voted "present" almost 130 times in the Illinois state senate, refusing to take positions on tough votes, but he roused himself sufficiently to vote against a bill that would have given protection to babies born alive after a failed abortion procedure. He surrounds himself with shysters, charlatans, and unrepentant terrorists. His early experience as a community organizer was working with the far-left group ACORN which has a reputation for voter fraud and other malfeasances. He often seems to take multiple positions on issues of importance and switches his position when it's politically expedient (a partial list of such changes includes his views on nuclear power, FISA, gun laws, campaign financing, Jerusalem, NAFTA, gay marriage, welfare reform, and Iraq. He even vowed in 2006 that he would not run for president). He sacrificed his pastor and friend to political expediency after telling us that he couldn't do such a thing and was willing to denigrate his own grandmother to advance his political fortunes.

He chooses Clinton administration officials as policy advisors while promising to break with the politics of the past. He opposes increasing our oil supply and any restrictions on partial-birth abortion. He favors open borders, high fuel prices, higher taxes, tax-payer funded abortion, and the redistribution of wealth from producers to non-producers. He also favors increased regulations on business, a universal health care plan that will, many experts claim, diminish the quality of health care in the country, and a toothless foreign policy.

Moreover, he is very likely to appoint judges and justices, like Justices Stevens and Ginsburg, who will use their power to create law rather than to interpret it, and has promised that he will appoint jurists to the Supreme Court who will uphold Roe v. Wade. At least that's where he stands as of today, tomorrow might be different.

Other than his personal charm and likeability he has nothing to commend him. He has no r�sum�. He has never been an executive or administrator. He has served neither in the business world nor the military. His only previous employment was as a "community organizer", whatever that is, and he has served in the U.S. Senate for about 150 days. There is nothing in his background which qualifies him for the post of either Chief Executive or Commander-in-Chief.

Abroad we are faced with an enemy determined to annihilate our way of life, our culture and our children. At home we are oppressed by an enormous regulatory bureaucracy and a culture of litigiousness that oppresses and stifles innovation and public life. Senator Obama is ill-prepared to confront the first - he was, in fact, endorsed by the terror organization Hamas - and is actually favorably disposed toward the second.

In short, based on what we know of him, I fear his election would be a grievous setback for our country and its people.

RLC