fiscal restraint - the farm bill was an appalling combination that gave taxpayer money to large businesses, dampened free trade. hurt small businesses and was roundly condemned by both sides of the spectrum as pork-o-rama. McCain opposed it, Obama did not. I think that McCain will do a better job refusing to spend money willy nilly.
environmental policy. Me turning my ac from 80 deg to 90 will not solve the energy crisis. neither will drilling, hybrid cars, inflated tires or combining errands into one trip. They are fine things to do (except the ac. 85 is as high as i go) and every little bit helps, but they won't solve the increasing need for energy to serve an expanding population. Nuclear power, combined with wind, and other proven energy sources like thermal solar (as opposed to economically unsound photovoltaic) is an answer. Believing with all your heart that we'll have all the energy we'll need by processing kudzu and turkey offal is all very well and good, but it is not a reasonable policy. throw money into the research by all means, but for now, build nuclear. Plus McCain was against the ethanol debacle. The other difference is a sense of balance. One of the major shortcomings of the environmental movement is to demand that developing areas like Africa spends money they cannot afford on energy sources that are less reliable, less powerful, and far far far less efficient. We don't want these countries to follow the path of china and the early 20th century for pollution, but we can help them do that without stunting their growth.
Tax policy - My sister and her husband gave up a well paying stable income to start a small business selling and promoting solar hot water heaters. they have 4 kids to put through college, I know that they considered very carefully before they decided to risk it. Change the risk/reward ratio enough, and people like my sister will opt for the safety of the working for a big business because it will be what is best for their family. And changing that ratio is exactly what Obama will do by saying that he will cut taxes on the middle class, and raise it on the wealthy. Obama wants to raise the capital gains tax. It was pointed out to him that historically raising capital gains always led to decreased revenue. He said he didn't know about that, but said that raising capital gains would be fair. I understand why people like the idea of Robin Hood, but this isn't robbing from the rich to give to the poor. This is putting brakes on the economy without any benefit, even to the government. because its fair. To Obama's credit he has mentioned eliminating capital gains tax for small businesses. I don't actually know what that means, since small businesses don't pay capital gains tax unless they sell their business. Perhaps he means capital gains tax for the people investing in small business? in which case he is making riskier investments look better. I asked a small business owner what she thought of the plan. She was scared how little Obama seemed to understand about the economics involved in running a business. She felt that voting in her companies financial best interests might be greedy, but it really isn't. She runs a good business that produces a good product that employes over a hundred people. What is bad for her business is bad for other businesses. Its bad for the workers as well as the owners. Its makes people choose to not start businesses, not grow businesses, not take risks, not compete. And that is bad for the country at large. I like that McCain didn't approve of the Bush tax cuts, because he felt that until we cut spending, we couldn't afford them. I believe that he will both limit spending, cut taxes and demand a balanced budget. I also like that he has the courage to go to detroit and areas like it and tell them, "sorry, these jobs aren't coming back". He didn't promise a lot of government handouts to keep jobs that had already left, he faced that realistically. People are upset about manufacturing jobs going overseas, but they forget that a whole lot of manufacturing jobs have simply been automated. China has lost a lot of manufacturing jobs in the last two decades too.
general worldview - I get the feeling that Obama knows what it takes to lead our country into a Utopian state. If health insurance is cheap enough, everyone will buy it. If we just talk with Ahmadinejad and share our feelings, all will be well. At some point the difference becomes theological - People are innately good, and if you remove the barriers in society that make them steal, cheat, attack, etc, then all will be well. Take the insurance problem. Obama said that he had decided against a mandate because "everyone will buy it if it is cheap enough". There are many reasons people don't buy health insurance. One is that they can't afford it. Others can afford it, but don't get it because of the belief that they can't get sick, or that it is someone else's job to pay for that, or that it cuts into their beer money. If you believe that man is fallen, then you place safeguards so that people do not coast along without tapping their beer fund to pay for their insurance, knowing that they can get it with no appreciable difference once they find out they are sick.
Corruption - call me jaded, but I have a hard time trusting a politician that rose through the ranks of the Chicago machine. Even the thought concerns me. McCain isn't all that clean either, but while I dislike many of the imperfections brought on by McCain-Feingold, I respect that McCain tried to address an obvious problem. I saw that Factcheck.org gave Palin a thumbs down on her statement about Obama having not written any substantial legislation either at the federal or state level. I was disappointed by this because their rebuttal was that he had co-sponsored bills, (which means practically nothing). He did not write any of the bills that he co-sponsored, and at least one of them was brought up months ago with people from his own party grumbling about him showing up and putting his name to something when he hadn't attended any of the meeting hammering the thing out. I believe the term "glory hound" was used. To be fair this was during the primaries, so it may have been a Clinton supporter, and this just goes back to the sad fact that nothing in Washington can be fully trusted. Which leads me to my last, and possibly best reason for voting for McCain and against Obama.
Gridlock - there is a democratic congress in place - animosity between a congress and a president of opposing parties who cannot agree and can get nothing done is really the best of all worlds. The less they do, the less damage they inflict.
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