Obama is Really a Good Guy

In light of all the news that the government is spying on everybody, Obama is just a misunderstood Good Guy...

Presidential Politics

When the Utes are playing one of their worst games in years, its a good time to post on the blog about politics:

I had a friend (Sean Anderson) post a request on facebook for any reasons why Barack Obama deserves another 4-years in office.  We all know about the big differences (abortion, gay marriage, Mormon, African-American, etc.), I took this as an opportunity to explore the differences between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama on concrete issues that impact me and my family.  Following are mainly duplicates of the comments that I posted.

From what I can tell, Obama and Romney are very close on foreign policy. Both support Israel, both support the UN and NATO and both defer to the military as to when the war in Afghanistan should end. One of the big exceptions is with regards to Cuba. Obama wants to open travel and lift parts of the embargo, Romney wants to keep things as-is.

Obama believes in global warming, Romney doesn't. Obama wants to continue to preserve and protect National Parks and Forests, while Romney doesn't. Personally, I think that for us to be good stewards of the earth is critically important (Considering that we drive a Highlander Hybrid and Chevy Volt as well as purchase wind power, this may have already been apparent).

I think that Obamacare has gotten a bad rap from many people who haven't read or don't understand just what the plan entails (I'm not defending it, but just pointing out that much is misunderstood). Most people agree that something needs to change with our health care system, but few people can agree upon what that change should be. I like that the process has been started, now lets start to optimize it. The absolute best explanation on Obamacare (with citations and links to the actual bill was posted on Reddit.com a couple of months ago: http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/vb8vs/eli5_what_exactly_is_obamacare_and_what_did_it/c530lfx). Take a moment to read through this. I found it absolutely enlightening and it made most of Obamacare must less scary.

One of the other big things that I struggle with is the tax cuts for the rich that the Republicans are so obsessed with. First off, recall that the last time the budget was balanced was under Bill Clinton (granted the economy was growing like mad), but this was also before the huge tax cuts of 2001 and 2003. Yes they have benefited me and my family, but they were an enormous benefit to the rich and super-rich. Obama supports extending the tax cuts for those of us making less than $250,000 while eliminating the tax cuts for those making more than that. Luckily (or not so luckily), I fall squarely in the making less than $250,000 camp so this won't impact me at all. Refer back to Ben's most recent ramble (http://jennandben.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-ramble-four-things-you-should.html) where he believes that the tax cuts should be extended to US corporations (and I assume, not to the rich people, although that is 100% speculation). This I agree with as well. Anyways, I'm still in the undecided camp, but these are a few of the reasons why I'm certainly not against Obama. Clearest choice in a generation? Not yet for me. I've got to prioritize my issues before I can make that choice.

Obama supports citizenship for children of illegal immigrants born in the USA, Romney doesn't. Some of these kids have lived in the USA for 15+ years and don't speak the language of the countries that they would be deported to. Also, Obama supports temporary amnesty for illegal immigrants working in the US, Romney doesn't. Additionally, Obama would allow the children of illegal immigrants access to government subsidized healthcare. 

From recent news, I appreciate the Mitt Romney has released his tax returns validating the claims that he has been making over the last few months.  His tax returns are an indication of his honesty, his generosity and his ethics (he paid a higher tax rate than he had to in support of his principles). 

Lastly, Obama supports net neutrality while Romney does not.  Net neutrality is "a principle that advocates no restrictions by Internet service providers (ISPs) or governments on consumers' access to networks that participate in the Internet (see Wikipedia - Network Neutrality)." Specifically, Obama supports FCC regulations that force ISPs to provide equal access to all content on the Internet, while Romney would prefer to leave these issues up to the open market.  Unfortunately, this would allow my ISP (Comcast) to slow-down my connection speeds when I am streaming something from Netflix, or prevent me from accessing http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/ or http://www.howardstern.com/. [Source: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2012/09/21/obama-romney-ne-neutrality/]

So what do you think?  Are there other issues that are more pressing or important than those that I've posted above?  As an undecided voter (mostly) in a state where my vote will not count, why specifically are you supporting one candidate over the other?

Small World or Big Neighborhood?

Alison and I received this card in the mail a few days ago (I include myself because it was addressed to "The Squire Family"). A few questions immediately came to mind:

1. How on earth did we get on this mailing list? We've never lived together outside of Utah nor have we ever even been to New Jersey while married, much less Southern New Jersey.

2. How much money is this physician's office spending on mailings that are going to people far from their potential clientele? Can't they run a quick filter and remove everybody that doesn't live in New Jersey or within 100 miles of their office? As far as I can tell, junk mail like this is probably the biggest reason that health care costs are spiraling out of control. I'm forwarding this onto Obama.

(While we did briefly consider driving to New Jersey to check out the conditions, we decided that a 32 hour, 2,154 mile one-way commute to a doctor's appointment probably didn't make sense.)

Huntsman to China

I think that Obama's nomination of Jon Huntsman to be ambassador to China is very shrewd. I think it's a good move and one that will benefit both of them. In my opinion, the losers are the people of the state of Utah, because Huntsman has proven to be a pretty darn good governor (and more moderate than Gary Herbert). Here's an interesting take from MSNBC.com's First Read:

"***A-Huntsman we will go: Obama's nomination of Utah Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman to be ambassador to China seems to benefit two people: Obama and Huntsman. For Obama, it was yet another signal to independents and moderates that he's reaching across the aisle (Ray LaHood, Arlen Specter, and even the failed nomination of Judd Gregg are the other examples); it all but removed a potential 2012 challenger and an important moderate voice inside the GOP; and it showed that Obama's serious about China (Huntsman has sterling credentials -- he speaks Mandarin, did his Mormon mission in Taiwan, and served as George W. Bush's deputy U.S. trade representative). For Huntsman, the nomination gives him a job he obviously desired; it gets him out of the country at a time when his party is undergoing internecine warfare; and it possibly preps him for a presidential bid in 2016, bolstering his foreign affairs credentials. By the way, the cynical side of us is very impressed with how Obama has so cleverly tied up two of his biggest potential rivals in the future. First, he offered Hillary the plum job at the State Department, removing her as a potential obstacle from the Senate. Now he's taken Huntsman off the table for 2012."

***Update***
I wanted to add the following quote from the LA Times this morning (5/20/09):

"Among the most upset over Huntsman's impending departure are Utah's embattled Democrats and their progressive allies who dread his replacement, Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert, a lawmaker about as different from the incumbent as two members of one party can be. How different? Huntsman may be the greenest Republican governor in the country, strongly advocating action to fight global warming. Herbert recently spoke at a forum hosted by the conservative Sutherland Institute which ... 'reinforced the message that global warming is not human-caused and that those who contend that it is are ignoring scientific evidence to the contrary.' David Magleby, a dean at Brigham Young University and one of Utah's most astute political observers, put it this way: 'This state will see, I think, a far more conservative agenda shared by both the governor and the Legislature than we've had in two decades. This is a sea change, not just a change from Huntsman. It's been a long time since we've had a governor as conservative as most people assume Gary Herbert will be."

Big, Beautiful 'O'

I voted for Barack Obama for one reason only. Watch the video (and pay attention at about the 90 second mark).



I showed up at our polls (about 2.5 miles from our house) at 6:45 AM. There were already around 40 people in line and when the polls opened at 7:00 AM, only 4 voting machines were working (out of 12). Shouldn't these sort of problems been figured out last night, yesterday or last week? Arrggh. By the time I got to the front of the line, there were 6 machines working. By 7:30 I was out of there - quicker than I expected.

Undecided?

If you are still undecided, you can always vote for my personal favorite candidate. It's not Obama or McCain, but he's definitely got his head on straight. See the campaign ad:

Lurp for Pres!


If anything, be sure not to let the following happen to you. Get out and Vote!