Election Day

The first thing that popped into my mind this morning was this: Today our nation will elect a new leader. McCain or Obama? Either way, history will be made.

McCain - Palin


At age 72, John McCain would be the oldest president ever elected to a first term. I personally think his age and "old white man" look has hurt him more than anything in this election race. People are ready for change, and the race for President has become more about show business than fact. Some people see this old stiff white guy and just assume that he's a relic of the past, unable of bringing significant change.

What if the Republican candidate had been a 50 year old John McCain? That might have been a completely different story. Of course, we won't know for sure until tonight, but I personally voted for McCain. His service in the Navy and survival of the torture he endured as a POW in Vietnam mean a lot to me. He has a reputable political history, having been a Senator in Arizona since 1987. No matter how often Obama tries to say McCain is just like Bush, McCain's history proves that he is not afraid to disagree with the Republican party.

The other part of the McCain team is also a historical first. Governor Sarah Palin is the first woman to run for VP on a major party ticket, and if elected, will be the first woman Vice President. She has taken a lot of shit in the media lately, and everytime I read forums and CNN comments, people are really railing on her, calling her evil and saying nasty, untrue things about her. I don't understand it! I think Palin is the best candidate in this entire election.

At just 44 years old, she is young and energetic. Family is obviously a huge priority to her. But what I also love is that she's not afraid to get her hands dirty. She's tough physically and mentally. I also appreciate the fact that she is the daughter of a school secretary and a science teacher. She's middle class, just like most of the rest of us. People in the media are going berserk about her accepting a $150,000 wardrobe from the Republican Nation Party?? Give me a break! Basically, they are railing on her for not having enough money of her own to dress in the designer labels that today's show-biz TV world demands of its politicians. If she hadn't accepted the wardrobe, we probably would have seen articles bashing her appearance.

Ethics are a huge concern to her and I truly believe that she would be great in the Whitehouse. She understands what a lot of families are going through. Not because she's researched it and looked at numbers to figure out what she thinks people care about. But because she's actually experiencing it herself. And that means more than any amount of research.

Obama - Biden

At only 47 years old, Obama is one of the youngest men to run for president on a major party ticket. If elected, he will also be the first African American president. I guess his African American heritage is the one he chooses to identify with, even though his mother was white and his black father actually left him and his mother when Obama was only 2. In some ways, I wonder if the black community would see this as an empty victory. Obama wasn't raised in a black community by anyone who is, in fact, African American. He just happens to have that skin color (sort of) and half of his genetic makeup came from that race. Why that makes him more black than white, I don't know that I will ever understand.

But I digress... Obama's experience is, well, not much compared to McCain. He served in the Illinois Senate from 1996 to 2004. In 2005, he was sworn in as a United States Senator, and basically began gunning for the Presidency right away. As I'm sure you can tell, this is in no way a non-biased blog post. I don't like Barack Obama, and I'm not afraid to say it. He talks about change and reform. He talks about reeling in the spending and getting America back on track. Yet, he thought it was acceptable to spend over 5 million dollars just to get a 30 minute spot on major television networks. This guy strikes me as all show-biz. He is the type of politician who has made a very careful study of the American people and has figured out what to say that will please the most people. He strikes me as a manipulator. His knowledge comes from strategy, not experience.

However, that doesn't mean I think that he will lose today. In fact, I think he will probably be the next President of the United States. Only time will tell if that is the right thing for our country or not.

Obama's VP runningmate is Joe Biden. In a reverse of the ages on McCain's ticket, Biden is the older one on the Democratic ticket. He is 65 years old (almost 66), and has quite a bit of experience in the US government. He was elected to the US Senate when he was only 30 years and has been reelected five times. I don't know much else about him, but he seems like an okay kind of guy.

One of his earlier statements when he was running for President himself, was that "The Presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training." And yet here he is running with the least experienced candidate in our history. Hmmm. Biden has run for President several times, and I think he's just glad to be included in Obama's campaign. He said, "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy, I mean, that's storybook, man." Sounds to me like Biden saw Obama's selling points (good looking, well-spoken minority, a symbol of change regardless of what he says... it's about how he looks and how well he speaks) and jumped on the gravy train.

I will definitely be watching the election coverage tonight to watch history being made. I would love to see McCain win, but we'll just have to wait and see. Either way, the next President/ Vice President of the United States will be making history, and it is at least exciting to see new doorways opening for minorities and women in our country.