Vote for the Loser? Or Vote for the Muslim Terrorist?

Last night was a first for me.

It was the first time I attended a political rally... of any sort.

I attended a rally for presidential candidate Senator Obama. It was amazing to see how many people had turned out to show their support (most local news agencies report ~45,000 in attendance). On the surface I find it encouraging this many people (especially in my state) care.

However I'm wondering if they are doing it for the 'right' reasons. Allow me to explain... a week ago the Girlfriend and I attended a wedding reception. At the reception we introduced ourselves to a couple at our table. The topic of the election came up. He was a former marine and had served over in Iraq and was now a police officer. During the conversation they admitted that they were going to vote for Obama because John McCain was going to lose and they wanted to vote for the guy that won...

Za?! Really? Are you serious?



Over the last several weeks I have been receiving lots of emails about why one shouldn't vote for one candidate or the other. Most of them were ridiculous and I was able to ignore them until... several of the anti-Obama emails began to pander to fear-mongering and demonizing Muslims. The emails contained little fact, a lot of lies, and a whole lot of anti-muslim implications. The gist:

Terrorist == Muslim == Obama == Vote for McCain.

I could not let these emails go by unanswered. There are plenty reason why both of these men should not be president. However, even if it were true that Barack Obama was Muslim (it's not)... so what? Why should it matter? At least 20% of the population in the U.S. is not Christian... that means at least 60 million U.S citizens don't share our current president's religious views. I replied to those emails with a bit of angst. Solid facts against one candidate or another are fine, but just don't tell me a lie based on fear and expect me to go with it. I hope the people at the rally do get out and vote.



In the last election (2004) I felt McCain was one of the stronger/better candidates. I'm not so sure now; previously he was very anti-Bush, then he was very pro-Bush, and now he is claiming he is anti-Bush again. Obama promotoes "change" however in the last year he has voted with the status quo on a few key issues of which I hold particular interest; claiming he would change them once he got in the White House. Why wait? If you believe in change, then start now... don't wait until it becomes more convenient.

I want to get excited about a candidate and believe; but then I remember in the end they are both big politicians and they will continue to behave as such.