WTF have I been waiting for!?

Okay okay... It's less than two weeks to the big election and I've been sitting on my hands for... let me check... TWO AND A HALF YEARS!!!!!

I watched the debate the other night (and the two previous times as well), and like pretty much everyone who wrote a commentary on these debates, I was underwhelmed by both these guys. At least the President actually had some real things to say about what he's done and what he wants to do... Romney mostly sat there like Gomer Pyle going "yep yep... I like that too!" But, just like Dubya before him, the Republican candidate doesn't really know how he feels about the commander in chief 

Unfortunately, even the President wasn't exactly the inspirational, motivational political wunderkind that he was four years ago... It's hard to get excited about someone who doesn't get excited about himself! At the same time I believe that his centered, settled, level-headed approach has actually saved our collective butt more than once during the last four years, so it's hard for me to remain to critical of a style I'm not fond of, but which might just prove to be the best approach.

Now I've been asked by my niece (who lives in the big ass battleground state of Florida no less... Remember the 2000 mis-election??? Butterfly ballots... Voting boxes dumped in the canal (I was there, I saw it!)... Half the Jewish population of Palm Beach County accidentally voting for Pat Buchanan... Katherine Harris... Big protesting groups of Republicans... The Supreme Court!!!  Yeah, THAT Florida!) to tell her who I'm voting for and why.

So I find it a compelling question that I want to take seriously and that I want to answer with integrity and heart.

Then I got this picture (click to view a larger version) here in my email this morning and I read through the list and I thought, Yeah! That's pretty much it!

There is simply no way I can remember the way the wheels were coming off the vehicle of government all the way back BEFORE 9/11 and the way some of the Republicans responded to that disaster with hubris and inaction and lies that took us into an unnecessary and disastrous war in Iraq and not have difficulty voting for a man who has largely decided to resurrect that same old gang of pirates for his foreign policy development. 

There is simply no way that I can remember evacuating New Orleans as Katrina was blowing in from the South, and sitting in exile for weeks (and then months) as I watched people dying in the black water, and people suffering from a lack of anything to sustain life, and remember the callous disregard of the Republican led government that drove a stake through the heart of what had become my home and even imagine a follow up to that kind of horrible travesty.

There is simply no way I can remember the last five years with a clarity that seems to be lacking in the current accounts of our recent economic history and not be thankful that the President walked a difficult and balanced line between spending and saving, between supporting the bankers and regulating them at the same time; that he chose to push forward on things like healthcare (something no one has been able to accomplish in all of U.S. history), on fair pay for women, and on equal rights for all, and not want to see what four more years might help bring to fruition. 

It's not for nothing that this year's campaign slogan is FORWARD. If you watched any of the television coverage of the conventions its real easy to see the differences this election represents. The Republican convention looked and sounded like an America replayed in the 1950s black and white TV universe of Leave it To Beaver and Father Knows Best. The Democratic convention looked and sounded like the America that I live in, and want to live in!

Has President Obama done everything I wish he had in the way I wish he had done it? No and no. But... to ask that question the Republicans seem to be fond of asking... Do I feel like I am better off than I was four years ago?  Absolutely! The reason for that isn't necessarily based on the details of my present situation at this very moment (no doubt to be further detailed in a future post), but more on the fact that there are things that have been put in place and that are coming to fruition that will make this country, my life, and the lives of all I care about to continue to get better and I absolutely REFUSE to go back!

And just in case you still need convincing... Give a listen to The Boss (skip the first five minutes, but be sure to listen to what he says about voting from about 10 - 15 minutes in... the music's great too).

No Retreat Baby! No Surrender! 




















FORWARD!