October 23, 2008

Why Barack Obama Scares Me

I've been on this planet nearly thirty years and I've followed every presidential election since I can remember. I supported George H. W. Bush as a child because he was what the country needed to close out the Cold War. I supported and actually campaigned for Bill Clinton in the sixth grade on the premise that George H. W. Bush raised taxes when he campaigned on the premise he wouldn't. I stood in an auditorium of my peers and spoke out for Bob Dole based on the fact that Bill Clinton was not what was morally right for the country (myself and a friend were booed out of that auditorium). I supported George W. Bush because Al Gore was not what the country needed in a time of great economic uncertainty that was apparent at the end of the Clinton administration. I then supported George W. Bush again for a myriad of issues to include John Kerry's flip-flopping on the issues. I have now voted (absentee in the great state of Florida) for John McCain because, let's face it folks, Barack Obama scares the life out of me.

I am talking about a state Senator from Illinois who has not even completed a full term in the U.S. Senate (his first real decision of substance to others ever made would affect this country so greatly and it would come from the White House). I'm talking about a man who went to a church whose pastors have antagonized Conservatives while damning our nation. I'm talking about a U.S. Senator who associates with a known, unrepentant domestic terrorist. William Ayers killed no one, the left states, but if I set of a bomb in your car while it was parked in your garage at your home would you be okay with it since I didn't kill anyone? I think not. Barrack Obama said he would take federal funding and then didn't; will he threaten sanctions one day and not impose those sanctions a next? Will Barack Obama tell the world we're here to help and then decide maybe our response should be limited? Hell, I looked up the definition of scare and there was a Barack Obama advertisement on the page (dictionary.com if you want to go look for yourself). I understand that these points might be considered right wing talking points and while I might still be a Conservative I'm certainly not going to throw written bombshells at Barack Obama without some sincere justification (from a personal level of course).

I ventured over to Barack Obama's web site this evening. It was quite easy to pull up Mr. Obama's stance on three key issues to me; defense, economy, and taxes. I am a stickler for etiquette and procedure and upon pulling up the defense page I instantly noticed the phrase, "soldiers, seamen, airmen and Marines." The proper term for those serving in the U.S. Navy is sailors; you're telling me that someone on Barack Obama's staff hasn't pointed that out? Then the web site states that recruitment is essentially down and that problems in that arena have been swept under the rug. When since President Bush has assumed the Commander-in-Chief role has there been a recruitment problem? The U.S. Air Force spent quite some time downsizing to fit into the mold that Congress restricted it to while the U.S. Army has met nearly every goal they've set out. The plan ahead for Barack Obama's would be administration is, "… we must build up our special operations forces, civil affairs, information operations, and other units and capabilities that remain in chronic short supply…" Isn't that the "Rumsfeld Doctrine" which the left has said repeatedly failed us? It is. Then there are calls for an increase in the size of the Army and Marine Corps; another Bush administration run Department of Defense effort. Then there is a call for DoD protection of cyberspace, which I wholeheartedly agree with, but Congress put the brakes on an Air Force Cyber Command recently (the same Congress that Mr. Obama is serving in). What great new ideas is Barack Obama bringing to the Department of Defense? None it would appear. Yet, hope and change are the tenets of his campaign.

When I pull up the economy page I was disturbed by a simple play on numbers, "The Bush tax cuts give those who earn over $1 million dollars a tax cut nearly 160 times greater than that received by middle-income Americans." Shouldn't those making more money get a bigger tax break in dollars and cents than those making less money when a tax break is issued? That's simple numbers isn't it? If I make two-million dollars a year and I get a 10% tax cut then obviously I will get a bigger (in dollars) tax cut than someone making twenty-five thousand dollars a year who gets a 10% or even 30% tax cut. This claim by the Obama campaign is a ploy at best and a predicated falsehood at worst. Barack Obama says he's going to work to renegotiate NAFTA. That's the same NAFTA that gives the United States a big claim of relatively affordable, non-terrorist sympathizer oil from our good friends in Canada. Is Barack Obama willing to drill more at home so that we can deal with Canada's biggest bargaining chip in NAFTA negotiations? No. How is that going to help our economy? There are also numerous mentions of "programs" to create jobs. These are along the same lines of the programs that have a city like Hickory, North Carolina seeing more people getting out of the furniture industry, taking unemployment, and federal funding for continued education so that they can go get an associate's degree in nursing then not use that degree for anything other than to say they have a degree. What good does that do our nation? This isn't the grand change that Barack Obama campaigns on. This is, most certainly, not the hope I'm looking for; it is simply more of the same and that is quite scary. Yet, the Obama campaign is yelling from the hilltops that John McCain is more of the same; the double-talk bothers me greatly.

Then I jump over to the Barack Obama page on taxes. Let me preface this by saying that any man that when asked by another man (the proverbial Joe the Plumber) if they are making too much money and Barack Obama flat out says he is, that is beyond scary. I think I know how to spend my money better than Congress with their bridges to nowhere (which Sarah Palin fought against) and their millions of dollars funding art projects that have no impact on my well being. But, again, there are talks of cuts for the low income folks, those of us that are saving up money for college, and our nation's retirees but no talk of maintaining the current tax cuts that have done me and many others so well over the past eight years. No mention of the death tax; why do I get taxed for dying? How can you tax a man for doing one of two things guaranteed in life? Why is it that my family must pay the United States for me doing the one thing at this point that there is no doubt I will do? Yet, somehow, this is acceptable. The Obama tax plan page is probably the least informative of the three key issues I've looked at.

In conclusion, I leave you with this one true thought. What is Barack Obama going to do that President Bush didn't already do? Nothing, other than raise taxes, continue the current defense strategy already laid out and lay waste to the economy. What is Barack Obama's reaction going to be when he is faced with his Cuban Missile Crisis, his stock market crash, or even worse, his 9/11? Nobody knows.