The Upcoming Election: McCain or Obama?

Well, on November 4th, 2008, the big Presidential election is scheduled to take place, and I am quite excited. I am planning to vote for the one man I never thought I'd vote for in a million years: Barack Obama. Honestly, I can't stand the guy for the most part, but I despise McCain because if he gets elected, we're never going to get out of Iraq, and our economy is going to continue to deteriorate. I would much rather vote for a third party candidate, but people have been telling me that I'd be wasting a vote, so I figure what the heck. My friend persuaded me to vote for McCain at one point about a month ago. He said he didn't like him either, but it was better than putting Obama - the potential Anti-Christ, in office. I agreed with him to some extent, but only a few weeks later, I had second thoughts. I couldn't bear the thought of having McCain in office. His presidency would mean just more of the same: a crumbling economy, an ongoing war, and so many more problems. Even though I hate Obama, I feel that he needs to be in office right now.

Ever since the beginning of this year when I took Government and when I registered to vote, I have been eager to vote for whom I thought would best represent our country. However, when I finally decided on somebody that I liked the best, it turned out to be none of the main contenders. The man that I wanted for President was none other than Ron Paul.

I hated a lot of the other candidates. Huckabee, Romney, Giuliani, and many other Republicans supported the ongoing and disasterous war, while candidates like Clinton and Obama had certain quirks about them that I didn't like. Obama in particular I hated greatly. I didn't understand why everybody was so cukoo over him. He got elected to the Senate in '04, big deal, but guess what? I remember seeing on TV how there was this HUGE celebration about it. When I first heard of him, I never really hated him, although as I said, I didn't understand why everyone was clamoring over him. People seemed to think of him as some god or something, but I didn't see how he was any different than most politicians and how he compared to some of our country's "heroic" ones (i.e. Ronald Reagan, Abe Lincoln, etc.) As time passed, I began to dislike him.

When I took Government earlier in the year, we were to research the candidates and learn about their viewpoints on key issues. When I looked through Obama's viewpoints, I found that not many of them particularly stood out from other politicians. However, one of his stances I found absolutely appalling. On one site, he was reported to have said regarding abortion that if one of his children got an unplanned pregnancy, he would not want them to bear a child as punishment. I couldn't believe my eyes - that was just plain sickening! The man didn't just support a woman's right to get an abortion - he actually supported abortion itself it seemed! Don't get me wrong, I 100% support the woman's right to have abortions, but I feel that they are still quite gruesome and in a sense disrespectful to life and should be prevented as much as possible. Many abortions appear to come about as a result of irresponsibility. Hillary Clinton said that she wanted to make sure that abortions were legal, safe, and RARE in the next century. THAT'S the kind of attitude we need - not, "Oh, I got pregnant as a result of irresponsibility, I'm just gonna kill a potential sweet, loving child" - primarily in regard to late term abortions. The earlier abortions I don't think are as bad because the fetus has not really formed into a complete human yet, but one has to agree without a shadow of a doubt that a baby in the third trimester is pretty much a human on its way out. Anyway, I couldn't believe what Obama said. It wasn't just that, but I thought of him as a possible Anti-Christ. Rumors circulated about him being a terrorist and a Muslim, and while I didn't exactly believe those things, I still felt that Obama could betray us. To me, he also seemed arrogant. The guy was in Atlanta a few months back, and he charged about $10,000 for a picture with him - for his fundraiser! Come on! The guy has got TONS of support - he does not need to charge $10,000!

Anyway, when it finally came down to McCain, Obama, or Hillary, who did I choose? None of the above. I chose Mr. Ron Paul, as I really felt he was exactly the kind of guy we needed in the White House. His political viewpoints were almost exactly like mine. He was against the Iraq War and abortion, yet he supported gay rights for the most part and small government. He had a strong moral fiber that I really liked, and he seemed like a warm, caring man. The drawback to Ron Paul, though, was that although he was running as a Republican, he was more or less like a third party candidate. Ron Paul did not carry nearly enough delegates to be the nominee unfortunately.

For a great portion of the year, I still supported Ron Paul for President despite the fact that he had little support in the main polls and he dropped out of the race sometime in March. Around August or September, however, after my friend "ridiculed" me for planning to write in somebody who wasn't even running, I decided to vote for someone who was running and for someone who had a much better chance of getting elected than Ron Paul: Ralph Nader. I don't agree with Nader on issues like gun control and abortion, but I set those differences in opinions aside. The thing I like about Nader is that he seems like the kind of guy that would get things done in office and not play politics - just the kind of guy we need. However, my friend kept insisting that Nader wouldn't get elected and said I shouldn't waste my vote. To me, however, it wasn't a matter of voting for the winner - it was voting for the person that I felt would best represent the country.

Nonetheless, I decided against voting for third party candidates a few weeks later, and my friend convinced me to vote for McCain. However, only a few weeks passed, and I was having second thoughts about planning to vote for McCain. Finally, I decided enough was enough - I was going to vote for Obama - despite how much I hate him and how much I don't understand why the guy is so popular. As I've said before, it's either elect a man who's surely going to put us through the same misery as Bush or elect somebody who's at least got a shot at making things better. As one of my friends said, even if Obama screws us over, our country's already in Hell, so it wouldn't matter anyway. As much as I hate to say it, I feel that our country needs Barack Obama, so that is why I plan to vote for him in the upcoming election.