Monday, November 03, 2008

My Endorsement

With one day left before the election, pollsters tell us that one in seven voters may still be undecided. How? You’ve had two years people! What kind of laissez-faire citizen must you be to not have accidentally gleaned enough info at this point to at least make the wrong decision?

But then I realized what it is everyone is waiting for! MY official endorsement. Yes, I realized that I haven’t officially endorsed anyone yet, and though it shouldn’t be too hard if you read my work, watch my shows, or hear my songs to figure out which candidate I’d endorse, if you’re still undecided at this point maybe you’re just not smart enough to read which direction I’m leaning without me out and out saying so.
So here goes:

I endorse, with nearly every fiber of my being, Barack Obama for President of the United States. So if you’ve been undecided, please go vote for him now.

Why?
In short, he’s one of us and all of the opposition’s attempts to paint him as “the other” have only managed to point this out in greater detail.
He wasn’t born to wealth and privilege. He’s worked hard to gain everything he’s achieved with an intellectual curiosity this college graduate finds deeply refreshing. He hasn’t turned his back on his roots either, pushing for health care, tax fairness, higher wages, and social equality for the middle class.
And outside of the many tangible issues he's right about, let’s just talk about the gut reaction we get from this guy, which is that he can flat-out lead. Whether he’s right or wrong, flim-flam or the real McCoy, I will follow this guy. I’ve heard folks question what this “Svengali-like hold” Obama wields over people is. Might I suggest it might be a thing called “leadership” that we’ve been without so long we hardly recognize it anymore? Dismiss it all as "words" if you must, but we live now in the information age, and commanding words is an important part of commanding a nation.

With this endorsement of course, I do not wish to disparage Senator McCain. Following his career as I have, I have always thought of him as an honorable man. I don’t wish to disparage him. Unfortunately, through his campaign, he has disparaged himself.

Senator McCaskill of Missouri said it best. “Barack Obama is running to fix America and John McCain is simply running against Barack Obama.” I’ve long respected Sen. McCain’s position on reform, but he has dishonored himself with the low nature of his campaign.
Perhaps out of desperation he has played the “guilt by association” gambit, a gambit which does a disservice to McCain’s honor, to our political process, and to logic itself. But since McCain began with that gambit, he has fallen victim to it, as his own association to a miserable unjust war, a running mate with no ideas or experience just bile and insults, and a Republican Party so mad to remain in power they will forego decency, morality and the good of the nation. Were this country the child in King Solomon’s Conundrum, they would clearly rather it be split than share the rule of it. Such friends defame you Senator McCain, and while I may have welcomed you in the White House, your friends have vandalized its walls and we can’t have them there anymore. You would serve your honor best to disassociate from such people.

So there you have it. I endorse Obama and any force to change the direction of this nation towards progressive policies where EVERY American dream stands a better chance of fulfillment.

Now go vote.

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