Obama for President

I have finally decided who I think would be the best President for the United States (and for the world). Although I'm probably closer to John McCain in principle, but he failed to impress me.

The Republican Party is corrupt and tired and needs some radical reform. I thought that McCain, being a self described maverick would have renewed the Republican Party, but he hasn't. The Republicans have to get over the whole Christian conservative thing as their main planks (You don't have to ditch social conservatism, just get rid of the whole bible thing) Maybe if they came a cross as a bit more moderate, (ie. not alienating those who are not evangelicals!), they would get some more support from the northern 'secular' middle class. Also, their constant emphasis on "Joe the plumber" is starting to get very annoying. I know that they're trying to appeal to the silent majority, but come on, not everyone is a self employed tradesmen.

Now for the problem with John McCain. Since the Republicans are a disaster and will loose big in the House and Senate, McCain will basically be a lame duck president. (His friendship with top democrats will not get him very far in the long run.) His constant attacks on Barack Obama for being associated with that Ayers guy looks like desperation. Yea he was a terrorist and a crazy radical hippie, but serving on a board with him and being a little friendly towards him doesn't mean you support what he did decades ago! (I'm part of clubs that have radical student activists on it, and I'm even friends with some of them, but that doesn't make me a radical student activist!).

McCain's constant attack on Obama's tax plan is also a problem. The USA is suffering from huge deficits, raising taxes on the top earners seems appropriate! McCain and Palin should understand that its not socialism! Compared to most other developed countries, Obama's tax plan is very un-socialist!

Now, enough with domestic policy. I'm not particularly a fan of most of McCain's foreign policy. The United States has to do something about Iran. Yea their president is really crazy but the USA has a big opportunity here. Obama should not be attacked because he wants to talk to Iran! Look, China was communist, killed a lot of US soldiers in Korea, and aided North Vietnam. That did not stop Nixon from going to China. Maybe if the state department entered talks with Iran, Russia, and China could step in and be a mediator between the two countries. When Iran no longer feels threatened by the USA, they will probably back down on wanting to destroy Israel. The rest of the Middle Eastern countries would no longer feel threatened by the USA, and would begin to slowly force Iran to cut of funding for Iraqi terrorists and back down on supporting Hezbollah. Mr. McCain, isn't this a reasonable idea? If diplomacy fails, then the USA will say that they tried everything, and the world would recognize that Iran is a problem.

Also, I have issue with McCain's assertion that Eastern Europe and Georgia should be allowed into NATO, that is really irresponsible! All this would do is further alienate Russia! Hello, Russia for centuries had influence over eastern Europe! Bringing Russia's neighbours into NATO is irresponsible.

There are many more points, but I will present them over the next few days. Basically, the Republicans do not deserve office and McCain, even though he has been tested, is not the right man for the job. America does need change, generational change! McCain is stuck in the 80s, and Barack Obama would have a better standing on the world stage-why? Because 80% of the world like him. You want UN reform? Obama's the one. You want the Europeans to finally work with the USA, then I think Obama should be president. You want to fix the Afghanistan mess? He's the only one talking about Afghanistan. All McCain says is that he's gonna capture Bin Laden. Well, how about rebuilding Afghanistan and destroying the Taliban too?