Why I'm Voting For Obama. AKA, Why I Love Scott.

Scott wrote this response to a family-member's e-mail about the Presidential election and the candidates. Some great points to notice:


Since you asked, here are the reasons I support Barack Obama.



· Opposed the war with Iraq from the start, even when it was unpopular.

· Is committed to opening bids for military contracts and procurements rather than handing them to crony companies.

· Has promised to better the conditions of veterans. This includes:

· Allowing All Veterans Back into the VA: One of Obama's first acts will be reversing the 2003 ban on enrolling modest-income veterans, which has denied care to a million veterans.

· Fully Fund VA Medical Care: Barack Obama and Joe Biden will fully fund the VA so it has all the resources it needs to serve the veterans who need it, when they need it. Obama and Biden will establish a world-class VA Planning Division to avoid future budget shortfalls.

· Improve Mental Health Treatment: Obama has pledged he will improve mental health care at every stage of military service. They will recruit more health professionals, improve screening, offer more support to families and make PTSD benefits claims fairer.

· Eliminate Income Taxes for Seniors Making Less than $50,000

· Supports stem cell research

· Would require “Sunlight before Signing.” Obama has said he will not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days

· Obama and Biden will nullify the Bush attempts to make the timely release of presidential records more difficult.

· No political appointees in an Obama-Biden administration will be permitted to work on regulations or contracts directly and substantially related to their prior employer for two years. And no political appointee will be able to lobby the executive branch after leaving government service during the remainder of the administration.

· Believes the gays and lesbian committed should be allowed the same legal rights as straight couples, even though he does not support my right to marry, he believes we should have rights as a couple.

· Would expand hate crimes to include vicious attacks against gays.

· Would Provide Universal Health Care and Lower Health Costs. Believes it should be mandatory that all children should be insured. Would not tax my employer-paid insurance as McCain would do.

· Create a Universal Mortgage Credit: The current mortgage interest deduction excludes nearly two-thirds of Americans who do not itemize their taxes. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will ensure that anyone with a mortgage, not just the well-off, can take advantage of this tax incentive for homeownership by creating a universal mortgage credit. This 10 percent credit will benefit an additional 10 million homeowners, the majority of whom earn less than $50,000 per year. Non-itemizers will be eligible for this refundable credit, which will provide the average recipient with approximately $500 per year in tax savings.

· Mandate Accurate Loan Disclosure to decrease predatory lending

· Obama has introduced and passed bipartisan legislation that would require more disclosure and transparency for special-interest earmarks.

· Obama has said he will give the Treasury Department the tools it needs to stop the abuse of tax shelters and offshore tax havens and help close the $350 billion tax gap between taxes owed and taxes paid.

· Does not make light of going to war. “Bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran” is not funny.

· Obama Knows Spain is an American ally and that it is not in the same hemisphere as South America

· He Supports the Millennium Development.

· Realizes that the office of Vice President is part of the Executive branch of government.

· He has a Commitment to Fiscal Responsibility: Barack Obama will pay for his $50 - $65 billion health care reform effort by rolling back the Bush tax cuts for Americans earning more than $250,000 per year and retaining the estate tax at its 2009 level.

· Reform Corporate Bankruptcy Laws to Protect Workers, Seniors and Retirees

· Require Full Disclosure of Company Pension Investments

· Would Provide Cheaper Prescription Drugs: Our seniors pay the highest prices in the world for brand-name drugs. To lower drug costs, Obama and Biden will allow the federal government to negotiate for lower drug prices for the Medicare program, just as it does to lower prices for our veterans. They also support allowing seniors to import safe prescription drugs from overseas, and will prevent pharmaceutical companies from blocking cheap and safe generic drugs from the market.

· Restore Scientific Integrity to the White House: Good policy in Washington depends on sound advice from the nation's scientists and engineers and decision-making based on the needs of all Americans. Obama and Biden will restore the basic principle that government decisions should be based on the best-available, scientifically-valid evidence and not on the ideological predispositions of agency officials or political appointees. What President Bush has done is nothing less than disgraceful.

· Obama supports Roe V. Wade, though I don’t agree with abortion, I don’t think it should be illegal. The next president will determine how the Supreme Court tilts.

· Obama has definitely taken the high road in this campaign, not lying, making attacks against opponent’s family members, does not continue to repeat misleading or inaccurate information just because it’s a good sound bite. Why would McCain say he’s going to suspend campaigning so he could rush to Washington to announce his leadership on the bail-out bill that went bust, all-the-while, his campaign ads plaid almost as much as Sarah’s “Bridge to Nowhere” line.

· My candidate respects women and his wife. Barack would never call his wife the “C” word (how could any man call his wife this word???) or trollop because she makes a comment about his hair thinning. I have true issues with this and that he was cheating on his first wife after she waited patiently for him to return from Viet Nam. McCain even laughed when at a meeting, a supporter asked him, “How will we beat the bitch (referring to Hillary Clinton)?”

· Obama seems cool and very methodical. I trust his finger on the button and no it would only be as a last resort. I DON’T trust that McCain could keep his cool when needed. And God Forbid he should die in office, I DON’T trust Sarah with the button. I don’t even want her to know where the button is. This leads me to my last point. Biden would make a fine president, even with the things his family has done. I’m not voting for them. Sarah Palin, in my opinion (not even going into her family) would make a terrible president. I would rank her better than Cheney or Agnew, but not as naïve as Quayle. Could she be president on day 2?

· Obama is the least like George W Bush and Biden the least like Cheney. This country needs a different course. Voting with the president 90% of the time doesn’t make you a maverick…It makes you a carbon copy. Something has to change or this country won’t recover.

· What I truly fear, is that the anger stirred at the Palin’s rallies. Her saying that Obama “pals around with terrorists” is just plain ugly and is met with frightening cheers from the audience, including “KILL HIM.” Can you imagine what would happen in this country, if someone caught up in this fervor carries this out??? Don’t say I’m paranoid. The last three high profile assassinations in this country, JFK, RFK and MLK, Jr. have a lot in common with Barack Obama. Georgia Representative, John Lewis called the McCain campaign out on this fear and hate mongering. He said, “"What I am seeing reminds me of too much of another destructive period in American history," Lewis said in a statement released to FOX News.”Senator McCain and Governor Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse. George Wallace never threw a bomb. He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights. Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama." McCain was still twisting these words last night in the debate saying John Lewis was calling him a segregationalist.” Not so. I’ve read the text where he said this on Fox. Lewis is simply calling for the McCain/Palin team to stop fanning these dangerous flames.

· And lastly, Senator Obama inspires the hope I have in this country, not playing to the country’s fears as his contender and the current president has done. Watching last night’s debates, it was disturbing to see how McCain still brought up ACORN and Ayers. Obama could have brought up The Keating Five, Rick Davis’ connection to Fannie and Freddie, William Timmons’ (the Washington lobbyist who John McCain has named to head his presidential transition team, aided an influence effort on behalf of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to ease international sanctions against his regime.), Todd Palin’s membership in the Alaska Independence Party, Pastor Muthee, or even attacking McCain’s choice of VP. Obama didn’t even mention Palin’s verdict of abusing her power as governor. McCain had no trouble going after Biden.

So, there you have it. Why I am voting for Barack Obama and why I believe he will lead us in the right direction. I have hope.

Touche.