ME Times Record

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Obama for president

letters@TimesRecord.Com

10/17/2008

His vision for reuniting this fragmented nation, not audacity, makes Barack Obama the best hope to lead the United States for the next four years. His perspectives on the challenges that will confront the next president reflect the intelligence, wisdom and modernity required to position America to thrive in the 21st century. Obama's action plan for addressing the critical issues that the 44th U.S. president will encounter on Jan. 21, 2009, offers more depth and innovation than that of his Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain. In his bearing and his thinking, Obama better reflects the long-held — but recently tarnished — American values of equality, justice, fairness and civil liberty. He recognizes that government affects everyday Americans' lives, so policies should be crafted to benefit the middle class directly rather than indirectly via crumb-spreading by those who have been allowed to consolidate wealth and power during the Bush administration. On key issues, here are capsule summaries of why Obama would be a better president than McCain: Economy: Obama's proposed tax restructuring would begin reversing the devastating impact of the Bush tax cuts on the federal budget and provide direct relief to workers, whose wages have stagnated. He acknowledges that war saps the economy. Conversely, McCain continues to hold fast to the philosophy that maintaining tax breaks for the nation's wealthiest residents will spur economic growth, the benefits of which will trickle down to average citizens. That's happening now, right? Energy: From his earliest days as a candidate, Obama has advocated significant investment in wind, solar and other "clean" alternative energy sources as a way of creating jobs, minimizing human impact on climate change and reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil. McCain counters with, "Drill, baby, drill," the 2008 campaign's equivalent of "Toga, toga, toga," a chant frat boys in the film "Animal House" repeated to make them feel better and forget that they were all failing. — like fossil fuel-based energy policy. Health care: Obama's plan focuses on better oversight of insurers, which is long overdue; more aggressive cost containment; and better access to preventive medicine. Again, McCain's belief that unfettered market forces will drive down prices ignores precedents in the energy and food sectors and fails to recognize that health care cannot be treated like other commodities. Supreme Court: Contrary to the rhetoric that became conservative dogma during the 1980s, all courts are activist courts. The only variable is which political agenda will drive that activism. President Bush's two appointees, John Roberts and Samuel Alito, caused the court to lurch to the right. McCain endorses that swing, which has already manifested itself in decisions that erode privacy rights and civil liberties. With as many as three Supreme Court seats opening during the next four years, an Obama presidency would balance the recent ascendancy of the court's conservative wing. Foreign policy: Obama and McCain split markedly on how the United States should conduct itself in the global community, with Iraq as a centerpiece. The Bush administration's discredited rationale for launching the war and its mismanagement of reconstruction have gravely undermined other nations' trust in and respect for the United States. McCain's perspective on Iraq and foreign policy in general derives from his experience in the Navy. Hence, his strategy subjugates diplomacy to military orthodoxy and a "duffer's mulligan" of the same counterinsurgency tactics that failed in Vietnam. Obama's personal history and deep knowledge of world history make him far more likely to strengthen frayed alliances by re-establishing a coalition of the willing rather than of the coerced. Character: Frankly, the next president will inherit a mess of epic proportions from a short-sighted and small-minded administration that diminished the United States' stature at home and abroad by adhering to a "you're with us or you're evil" approach to domestic and foreign policy. Electing Barack Obama would demonstrate that America is better than the way our government has conducted the people's business during the last eight years. It would repudiate outside claims that this nation has become a hypocritical, floundering empire and affirm that we remain a civilization founded on opportunity, equality and each person's freedom to fulfill his or her promise. McCain served our parents well. Obama will serve our children better.