A short while ago, someone on the Obama rapid response website asked if anyone had a simple list of 10 reasons to support Obama and 10 reasons not to support McCain. There were lists like this around, put together by volunteers, during the primary campaign. But I had not noticed any recently dealing with the presidential contest itself. I decided to try my hand at it and the results are below.
This is a draft. I solicit comments from any source willing to take the time to review it. However, for those who wish to comment, I am applying some simple rules.
1 Send your comments directly to me (policydebate@verizon.net) NOT to the Obama Rapid Response listserv. The reason for this is obvious there is no point cluttering up the listserv traffic, which is already very large with back and forth editorial exchanges best handled on a one-to-one basis anyway.
2 Editorial changes are welcome but only in the form of suggested specific alternative language.
3 Feel free to add to the list of 10 but only as a substitute. Alternatively, you can combine two of the current reasons and add another one. But do so with specific alternative language. The point is to keep the list down to 10.
4. All statements must be facts not opinions. In addition superfluous and redundant adjectives are to be held to a minimum. They detract from the tone of objectivity that is an important feature of these lists and they are vastly overused in the present political atmosphere. What do I mean by this? Say “American troops” rather than “brave American troops;” say “Bush tax policies,” not “the past discredited and unfair Bush tax policies.” But it is OK to say “the Bush tax policies that favor the rich,” because this is factual.
TEN REASONS TO SUPPORT OBAMA
1. Obama will work with the military leadership to end the war in Iraq in a responsible way that redeploys American troops so that they can be more effective in dealing with military threats elsewhere such as Afghanistan.
2. He will increase our standing as a world leader by reducing antagonism of caused by the Iraq war and American arrogance in the conduct of foreign affairs. He will reestablish close ties with our European NATO and other allies so as to strengthen the forces against terrorism and other forms of international oppression.
3. He will establish a system of national healthcare which will make insurance available and affordable to all Americans while maintaining the flexibility to satisfy individual preferences in the selection of healthcare providers.
4. He will initiate a major and dramatic set of energy policies which will move the United States on a credible path to independence from oil imports, acknowledging the need for sacrifice and their true costs while avoiding false promises and fake solutions.
5. He will immediately propose a set of economic stimulus programs to restore economic growth and employment in the context of longer-term policies that sustain non-inflationary growth through the expansion of domestic industries that support our environmental and energy national needs.
6. Relying on his 10 years as a professor of constitutional law, Obama will recommend justices to the Supreme Court and other federal courts who are highly qualified and respected and that appreciate such established judicial principles as a women’s right to choice, privacy, and civil liberties.
7. He will reverse the decline in an the real income and wages of lower and middle class working Americans by restructuring the tax system and protecting Social Security,with emphasis on tax relief for middle-class workers and senior citizens.
8. He will bring integrity to the federal government by insisting on high ethical standards, eliminating conflicts of interest, and dealing with all segments he of American society, regardless of their wealth or political power, on a fair, equitable, and transparent basis.
9. He will work to develop a consensus immigration policy for the United States based on the principles of secure borders, an improved immigration system, removal of incentives to enter the United States illegally, and bringing people out of the shadows of Society.
10. Obama will continue a campaign based on issues, integrity, and honesty, and reject support from those who do not follow these principles. He will continue to speak openly and thoughtfully about such sensitive issues in American society as race and religion.
TEN REASONS TO REJECT MCCAIN
1. McCain supports an indefinite commitment of US forces to occupy Iran in spite of the Iranian government’s own request for a schedule for their departure.
2. McCain supports an increase in the size and composition of our armed forces but no money for it. He supports continuing $10 billion a month for the war in Iraq and extending the Bush tax cuts for the very rich. Since he has proposed no specific spending reductions, there will be only borrowed money available for defense increases.
3. McCain’s plan calls for reducing the budget deficit but provides no specific measures to avoid continued record deficit spending and ever higher levels of national debt. McCain plans to increase expenditures for national defense, which accounts for 20% of the budget. He states that the only way to keep the budget balanced is successful reform of the large spending pressures in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, but has proposed no specific reform measures. Interest on debt held by the public is 10% ,of the budget but cannot be reduced except by lowering the debt, so it is increasing. Since McCain is unwilling to consider any tax increases – even on the very rich individuals or corporations. The result: historically high deficits and increases in the public debt indefinitely.
4. McCain says that he will nominate judges to the Supreme Court that reflect the judicial attitudes of Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.
5. McCain favors $300 billion in tax cuts for corporations and $3 billion for oil companies. For the approximately 147,000 families that make up the top 0.1 percent of the income scale, McCain offers a $270 THOUSAND tax cut, while Obama would raise their taxes, on average, by $702 THOUSAND -- a difference of nearly $1 million. (From the Tax Policy Center, a joint project of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution.)
6. McCain’s energy policy is promoted using PR gimmicks, such as A $300 Million Prize to Improve battery technology for cars, offshore oil drilling that the Congressional budget office says will have no impact for eight years, and a temporary suspension of the Federal gas tax, the most likely result of which will be to increase oil company profits.
7. His campaign is supported overwhelmingly by wealthy corporations and individuals to whom he will be beholden as president.
8. He is anti choice and favors repealing Roe vs Wade. He has said “the respect and commitment to the rights of the unborn …has a lot to do with national security….because it says very much what kind of a country we are….” In August 1999, McCain told the San Francisco Chronicle that he would "not support repeal of Roe vs Wade because it would force women to undergo illegal operations,” but has subsequently reversed his position and said that he was speaking about the need to change the "culture of America."
9. He believes that the Constitution established religion in America. "I would probably have to say yes, that the Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation." (Interview with Beliefnet.com, September 2007.)
10. McCain issues personal attacks on Obama’s character (questioning his patriotism, for example) and makes inaccurate statements of his positions, and such as claiming he favors higher taxes on middle-income wage earners. McCain’s campaign is supported by widely refuted provocative rumors, which he does nothing to discourage. These include totally false charges that Obama snubbed wounded troops by not visiting them on his foreign trip, that he wants to tax homes, IRA’s, and even water, that he can’t produce his birth certificate and is secretly a Muslim and that Michelle Obama isn't proud of her country and is shown using a racial epithet on a video tape that does not exist.
There are four additional reasons that I support Obama and do not support McCain. They are Elizabeth, David, Emily and Peter, my grandchildren.
Barack and Michelle Obama will bring to the White House the intelligence of FDR and Eleanor, the style of JFK and Jackie, and the integrity of Harry and Bess Truman.
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