Obama

[fabrisse]

Really? Biden?

HE PICKED THE LIAR?!?

Who's voting Barr? Nader? Bueller?

Seriously, when I was a kid my Dad used to say that no matter how bad the Republican candidate was, the Democrats would find a left-handed Rosicrucian (no insult meant to left handers or the Rosicrucians, just dad's way of saying someone not easy for average Americans to identify with) to run against him.

Obama didn't thrill me. The FISA vote after he became the nominee presumptive makes me gag just thinking about it. His stand on the death penalty is one of the most immoral I can think of (Yes, Bill Clinton was worse) -- for those of you who don't know, Obama is pro-death penalty but admits it has no deterrent value -- and he's tarred, however faintly, with the brush of the Chicago political machine.

I was willing to hold my nose and vote for him to keep McCain out because I think McCain is actively dangerous.

But Obama selected a fellow Senator for his veep which is a bad idea right there. I prefer one of the people on the ticket to have some Executive experience, just as I like one of the people on the ticket to have some national experience. The Clinton-Gore ticket enthused me for exactly that reason.

To select a man who had to give up his own Presidential hopes because he was a plagiarist is just overwhelmingly awful. When I saw the headline this morning, I nearly wept. Edwards at least has a healthcare policy (though I haven't read the fine print about whether it includes payouts for everyone's baby mama or if it's just his).

*shakes fist at sky*

Can the Superdelegates change their minds?

Comments

[tx-cronopio.livejournal.com]

You've always loathed Obama...really, if he'd picked Jesus Christ as his running mate, would you be happy?

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

I thought there were better choices on the Democratic side. Hell, I thought there were better choices on the Republican side.

But loathed? No. I wasn't happy with him as the candidate I'd be most likely to vote for, but until the FISA vote I wasn't frantic.

The FISA vote called into question Mr. Obama's honesty. I took his original statements at face value and was shocked by his vote. I only found out about the death penalty policy at dinner the other night with my cousin who is working as a volunteer for Mr. Obama's campaign.

This choice, for me, was the worst of all possible worlds. Biden is an intellectual cheat -- he plagiarized a submission for the law review for heaven's sake. I attended an honor code high school. That's just inconceivable to me.

I never expected a woman at the bottom of the ticket. Any woman. And I was fine with that. (Although I can think of a couple who might have been good fits, I understand about the "break one prejudice at a time" practicality.)

Tim Kaine (Governor of Virginia) was bruited about, and I could see him on the lower half of the ticket. He is young for a politician which plays into Obama's hope message, and he is a governor which would have eased my mind on the Executive experience problem.

But Biden?

As far as Jesus goes, there would have been a separation of church and state issue for me on that one. *G*

[thorbol.livejournal.com]

It seems to me that forgiveness for Biden's plagiarism would be long overdue, unless it truly indicated a pattern that continues to the present or at least the recent past. It was wrong, but very minor indeed as wrongs go in the world. I told a couple of notable lies a long time back that I'm ashamed of, but I'm less likely to lie after having done it, not more. I don't know how it is with Biden. moria923 reminded me this evening that somebody said something on NPR yesterday about Biden having a "truthiness" problem, so if he's knowingly fucking up facts, then I withdraw any sympathy or empathy. I know by frustrating and regular first-hand experience that getting the facts wrong, even about things you think you should know for certain, arises often from a screwed-up memory rather than screwed-up morals.

I think your most damning point may be about what Obama's FISA vote says about his honesty. Somebody of his intelligence and acquired subtlety has in my mind much less of an excuse than your average, frantic, please-the-crowd-of-the-moment pol might havefor declaring his absolute opposition to something in a bill and then reversing himself (even given that he did support an amendment to remove that something). I'd see things differently if there were new facts or a new perspective on existing ones that could account logically for the change of mind, but I know of none. (I probably wouldn't agree with the vote even then.)

I still expect to vote for Obama, but I certainly understand and respect a decision to vote for a third party candidate. I've done it several times before, and I'm likely to do it again.

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

If it were the speech that included rhetoric from Neil Kinnock, I could forgive it. We all pick things up occasionally and don't realize where they were from, but submitting someone else's work as his own for a law review is not a slip of the tongue. Yes, it was many years ago, but this is a major item.

I wrote the Obama campaign and requested the reasoning behind the FISA reversal. The answer I received wasn't exactly "don't worry your pretty little head," but it had those overtones.

Since I never make my ultimate decision until I've weighed all the facts, there's still an excellent chance that I'll be voting for the Democratic ticket. The platform hammered out at the convention will tell me whether I need to look elsewhere. I'll specifically look at ecological, economic, and security policies as those are my biggest concerns.

And by security policies, I mean whether domestic spying policies are dismantled or enhanced.

[moria923.livejournal.com]

I guess it was Biden's experience on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that did it. Obama had to show he had someone at his side who had some cred at dealing with the terrorist threat and the "3 a.m. phone call" scenario. Although it will still be Obama answering the phone, of course.

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

Yes. I do appreciate that not only does Biden take Foreign Relations seriously, the international community takes him seriously.

I guess part of me was really hoping for Kaine, but that wouldn't have assuaged the foreign policy doubts.

Part of me is positive there was a better choice out there somewhere.