This is a pretty straight forward question. For all of you who are supporting Barack Obama, I want to know why you are going to vote for him. If you can restrain yourself, I would like answers that have nothing to do with John McCain, but rather with why you think Obama is qualified and what particular stances you agree with him on. I know that this blog , this blog , this blog , this blog , and countless others support him. So I ask:
"Why do you support Barack Obama to be the 44th president of the United States?"
I'm Steve Kroll and I'm a 20 year old webmaster from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Among my interests and hobbies are conservatism, sports, economics/stock market, entrepreneurship, simple pleasures that nature offers, dogs and cats, making money online, web page design, 
Barack Obama is the most progressive candidate and the most likely to appoint the kind of Supreme Court and federal judges that I would like.
He is the most likely to quickly withdraw troops from Iraq, and the least likely, in my opinion, to get into more military mischief.
Barack is a true leader of a movement to get people involved creating their own government.
Paul, first let me say thank you for giving me an answer that talks about his political ideology and not about his doctrine of “Change”.
I agree that he will appoint activist judges to the federal and supreme court.
I disagree, however, that he will seriously “withdraw troops from Iraq”. Notice he hasn’t been playing up that issue very much in these primary states.
Also, he has stated that he would get into more military mischief (via Reuters article):
That sounds pretty mischievous to me, attacking inside Pakistan without approval from their government. That aside, I thank you for your comment.
“would be willing” doesn’t mean he will. sure, i’d be willing to do just about anything given the right circumstances.
Nardo
Imagine if John McCain would try and use the same logic that “would be willing doesn’t mean he will”. Barack Obama criticized Hillary for wanting to blow Iran off the face of the earth if they nuke Israel, but couldn’t she just say “would be willing doesn’t mean I will”. No, because logic is only applied when looking at the candidate you support. If it’s someone you disagree with, then they are an unintelligent war monger.
Hello Steve,
Thanks for inviting me to partake in your challenge. I appreciate the fact that you are truly interested in hearing all sides in this debate and I would invite you to state your views on my blog as well. Here is my answer:
At the start of the presidential campaign I assumed, like many others did, that Hillary Clinton would be be the Democratic nominee and I was perfectly fine with it. She had raised an impressive amount of money and had a strong campaign operation in place and I figured she would quickly outpace her competitors in the Democratic primary.
While I thought Obama seemed like an intriguing candidate, I figured he was too new to the process to have a chance against Hillary’s powerful political machine and was mostly running to build up his name recognition for a future run for the presidency.
But Obama surprised me and everyone else (especially Hillary) when he won the Iowa caucuses and then went on to split the Super Tuesday states almost evenly with Hillary. After that, his campaign seemed to take off as he racked up victory after victory through the month of February. By early March as the Texas primary was approaching it was already becoming clear that Hillary had squandered her chances and had fallen too far behind in the delegate count to win the nomination. As a practical matter, I decided to support Obama at that point on the grounds that a victory in Texas would slam the door on Hillary and bring a quick conclusion to the Democratic primary race.
But I have no qualms about supporting Obama beyond the pragmatic desire to coalesce around a winning candidate. While he is relatively young - 46 - he has more than enough experience and qualifications to be president. Obama graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School where he also held the prestigious position as editor of the Harvard Law Review and then went on to teach constitutional law at the University of Chicago for several years. But rather than cashing in by joining a big law firm in the private sector where he could have made a lot of money very easily, he chose instead to launch a career in public service, first as a community organizer and later as a State Senator and then U.S. Senator from Illinois.
Throughout his poltical career, Obama has demonstrated a desire to reach bi-partisan agreements and work constructively with his political opponents. His legislation to reform ethics and health care laws in Illinois gained broad bipartisan support. And in the U.S. Senate he has worked with Republicans like Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and Richard Lugar of Indiana to pass bipartisan legislation. Obama is far from being the extreme left partisan caricature portrayed by right-wing radio and web sites. While he is unabashedly progressive in his politics, he is not an ideologue and believes above all else in promoting good government policies that benefit rather than burden the citizenry.
While I’m not supposed to veer off into bashing Republicans, I have to stop here and say one of the key differences between the parties today that drives my voting decisions is my perception that Democrats, as opposed to Republicans, truly believe in and support good government. By “good government” I mean the kind of government that is beneficial to the people and accomplishes its goals in an efficient and cost-effective manner.
Republicans long ago were co-opted by a radical faction that believes that every government program is bad, government is always the problem and never the answer and that privatization is the ultimate answer to everything. So they practice what I call “bad government” and intentionally try to block, deter, ignore, starve or otherwise gum up government programs just to prove that they don’t work.
The problem is that Republicans have had eight years to put in place all of their ideas and they have failed miserably in almost every case. I would invite anyone interested to read Greg Anrig’s book “The Conservatives Have No Clothes: Why Right-Wing Ideas Keep Failing” for a thorough and in depth look at this predicament.
We need a leader who actually believes in our country, supports it and thinks that it can work. Someone who will put good government people into top positions, as opposed to right-wing anti-government ideologues, and help turn around some of the long neglected programs that this country needs to function more effectively and more efficiently.
I believe Barack Obama will do just that. A gifted speaker and communicator, he has an inate ability to gain people’s trust and find compromises that most people are willing to support.
As someone who will support and defend long established and proven programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Aid to Families with Dependent Children, Obama is the true “conservative” in the race. Republicans, by contrast, are the radicals, driven by an ideological furor, who want to tear down the status quo and replace it with a radical privatization scheme that has never been proven to work under any circumstances.
Obama’s position on global warming is in line with sound scientific studies and the conclusions of the vast majority of the scientific community, not based on a radical ideology that rejects science out of hand whenever it does not agree with predetermined conclusions.
I could go on with a long list of programs and policies that Obama supports and with which I agree, but suffice it to say that I support Obama because he is not an ideologue and because he supports and practices good government principles. That means that even if he puts in place a program or policy that I disagree with, I trust that he would abandon it or change it if it proves not to work, rather than stubbornly supporting it just because it meshes with his ideology.
I am leaning (very very slightly) towards a vote for Sen. McCain because of his support of pro-life issues but that support for Sen. McCain is dwindling.
If Sen. Obama chooses, Sen. Chuck Hagel (who is pro-life) as his Vice-President that would make a difference.
Speaking with others who are pro-life, I have become convinced the horror of abortion in this country will not be end by political means. After over 30 years and 40 million dead babies,I do not see a change in the Supreme Court will end abortion. We must change hearts and minds so that few women opt for abortion.
I am highly impressed with Sen. Obama’s campaign and ability to motivate first time voters. I like his inspiring positive message for change.
I like the way he has fought to stay with a positive message despite the mudslinging from Sen. Clinton. I like his message that seeks to unify us around the big problems we face like the war in Iraq, the economy, healthcare, the environment.
I am tired of the constant bickering and mud fights in Washington.
Sen Obama is clearly intelligent and articulate. He seems to have genuine compassion for the ‘little guys’ and their need for government help to bring affordable quality healthcare. I like his strong opposition to the war in Iraq, a war that I believe we should never fought.
Like President Reagan, he understands that real change must come from the grassroots up and that without such support, vested interests and washington insider politics reigns supreme.
[...] a previous post, I asked readers "Why do you support Barack Obama? ". One of the bloggers I cited as supporting Obama, Mike Thomas , kindly took the time to [...]
You got me. My support will not do much, being Malaysian, I am not a listed voter. Yet, I do blog about him, because visitors to my blog are mostly Americans and Malaysians. That much influence I can share with them. I support Barack Obama for President 2008. Barack Obama to me signify Change. He is a leader with a slogan The Audacity Of Hope To Change. Where his campaign fund is coming from, is assuring that when he holds office soon, he shall only be indebted to the American citizen, rather than a special group particularly with business agenda especially related to weaponry or arms. His believe and mine seems to align well, that change can occur by him being at the White House. What shall this change be? Order and harmony within the USA, especially economically. From here, he can lead by setting a new policy to expanding total global peace. In other word, no more sending of any American soldier to war, in any part of the world. Total Peace.