Enough

Or, preaching to the choir. But I can't not say it!

So while I'm thrilled to pieces that Obama is the front runner, it hardly matters. As long as he brings a different group of advisors and cabinet members and judicial appointees to the table, things will change and a vote for him will do the work we need it to do. Fortunately, Obama is a standup guy who tries to lead from the front, demanding competence rather than deference, which will be a nice change.

A good and a bad thing about voting for one of two people as president is that you really don't have to know a lot about them in order to pick. I can't enunciate all of Obama's energy plan or economic ideas. I do know that I respect some of the people he's consulted to contrive these plans, which is a good sign that he prefers experts to loyalists. But what this election comes down to is not between some guy you may or may not like and "the best of all possible options" (although I think Obama comes as close to that description as we're going to find in a human being). It is not voting for most of what one party promotes and some of what the other party promotes. It is this administration or not. It is voting for Thing One or Thing Two.

Four years ago, there were chants of "anyone but Bush" that somehow petered out with Kerry's nomination. He was a nice enough guy and an actual war hero who got his boat patrols out alive, but was a dry stick who couldn't rally the troops enmasse. He left people feeling, "meh" and let people forget that the choice wasn't about him, it was about him being "anyone but Bush". We lost sight of the fact that by not caring about Kerry, we were allowing Bush four more years to wreak his loyalist, lawless havoc on our nation. Now we know.

If you are undecided, look around. Do you have more purchasing power and disposable income now than you had 6 years ago? Do you feel safe from unreasoning fear? Do you still like to fly? How's your home equity? Did your bank close this year? Have you ever heard of a major bank closing in this generation for incompetence? How is your neighbor doing? Are there more abandoned homes in your neighborhood? How's your ability to travel overseas on a budget? Who do you think our international allies are? Are you afraid to show your American passport widely when abroad? Have you started using your dual citizen passport to make things easier? Have you had a major interstate fail for anything but an act of god? Are your health care costs going up or down? Has the ratio of income of the CEO you work for to your income increased or decreased? Do you feel pride when you look at our president? Our vice president? Our political prisoners?

If you feel safe and happy and prosperous and free of fear, and pride in our country's actions and think your fellow neighbor is doing as well as you and you think the path we are on is all sweetness and light and will somehow help us defeat the tactic of terrorism, the tool of the oppressed, then by all means vote for Thing Two.

But if you've had enough of the nonsense, vote Obama. Please.