Undecided

Politics, politics everywhere....

So my support forum is all abuzz about last night's campaign. They are mostly Obama supporters, so there is a lot of McCain bashing going on. There are Republicans on the forum, but most of them steer clear of the political threads.

Then Assistant Village Idiot has a ton of posts about last night's debate which are fairly objective in their views. Then I read this quote:

"Democrats are going to vote for Obama, Republicans will vote McCain, Undecideds
are obviously not paying attention."

Like a stake to my heart....I say.....like a stake to my heart.

I am paying attention. Really I am. The problem is that I used to vote based solely on themes like this:



Which is not to say that I'm Catholic, because I'm not, but that being pro-life has made me choose some candidates over others with that issue as the deciding factor.

I am pro-life, but I have "lost the faith" in that as a deciding factor in this election cycle. I don't ever see Roe v. Wade being overturned. I don't believe that Obama and McCain are going to do anything striking in regards to abortion. The next few years are going to be overshadowed by the wars we're involved with and the financial mess our country is facing.

So...how does that impact my vote?

I like McCain's focus on cutting spending. I hate his willingness to even talk about going to war with Iran. That saber-rattling from him, and the administration, drives me crazy. We have enough on our plates to deal with...trying to intimidate a maniacal leader in Iran seems like waving meat in front of a starving cougar. It just feeds into Ahminejad's,"America is out to get us!" propaganda.

I like Obama's willingness to try diplomacy first.

On the other hand, I watched an interview in which Obama was asked why, specifically, he should be president and be the right person to deal with our current crises. He fumbled around, started going off-topic, and the interviewer called him back to the original question. Obama paused and said that he felt he was good at getting people to come together and work on things.

I felt like I was watching a job interview for middle management: "So, Mr. Obama, why should Acme Enterprises hire you? What are your strengths?"

I was not impressed.

McCain doesn't want to raise taxes and wants to make Bush's cuts permanent. I'm not usually for raising taxes, but this doesn't seem like the right time to make those tax cuts permanent. We have to get income from somewhere to pay down our debt and fund this bailout.

Obama wants to raise taxes on every family making over $250,000. He says that 95% of families will have relief.

That doesn't make sense. Most families that make $50,000 or less, which I would think are the vast majority in America, don't pay any real income taxes.

Ask me how I know.

I know because we do our taxes each year ourselves, and we fall into that category. By the time one takes standard deductions and factors in various credits for having kids, the amount owed is $0, and there is usually a refund involved.

Not that I'm complaining or anything. :-)

I just don't buy the smoke and mirrors of "relief for working families".

So...yes I am undecided. There are serious issues, more than the ones I have mentioned, that I care about which are not fully represented by either candidate. They are equally important to me.

It's not that I am not listening...it's just that I don't like what I am hearing.