Why I voted for Obama over McCain

You know, I used to like John McCain. When he was a maverick.

Recently he has abandoned principled positions on two of the greatest issues facing our nation. He now wants to keep the Bush tax cuts that spread wealth upward and plunged us into deep deficits. He also courts the religious right leaders he once properly called "agents of intolerance."

While McCain has demonstrated frequently erratic and undignified behavior, Barack Obama has remained steadfastly calm and Presidential through brutal attacks and serious national crises. Every time I look into the biggest "character" charges against him, what appear from a distance as mountains turn out to be molehills and mirages.

Obama has taken more sensible positions than McCain, understands the economy better, and appears to have the temperament and intelligence needed to lead us through the troubled waters ahead. That is exactly what I am looking for in a President.

Economist sharing mismatched names with Republicans?

Sir -

Last weekend, I found two copies of the Economist in my mailbox: one addressed to me, and one to a "Dan Wrislit." Around the same time I also received a fundraising letter from John McCain intended for the fictitious "Dan Wrislit."

What disturbs me most about this is not that your respectable paper might be sharing its subscriber lists with the Republicans, but that you might be doing so through one of the Republican-friendly database companies who have improperly purged voter registrations in several states by mismatching voters' names.

Willamette Week shows integrity, Alley doesn't

I was just about to vote for Allen Alley as [Oregon state] Treasurer when his on-air lie about supporting John McCain called his character into question. This prompted me to do further research and to conclude that Ben Westlund was better qualified for the job. Thank you, Willamette Week, for showing the integrity to report Alley's breach even while it undermined your own endorsement.

Palin shows typical Republican hypocrisy

While Sarah Palin enthusiastically bashes Barack Obama for wanting to "spread the wealth around", it is now revealed that just this summer Palin herself said, "collectively Alaskans own the resources. So we share in the wealth when the development of these resources occurs."

Well, under Palin's definition I guess that means she and Obama are both "socialists". Which makes her something else that Obama is not: a hypocrite.

Keep gas prices down by conserving

The Tribune reports that gas prices are headed below $3 per gallon. This is great, but let's not get complacent. In the short term, OPEC is already talking about cutting production to drive prices back up. In the long term, we'll be out of this new recession in a couple of years and global demand will put price pressure on energy again.

We can't drill our way out of this mess. Conservation is the only real answer, and we can all help. Drive less. Slow down and don't race up to red lights. Try taking transit once a week, and catch up on your reading while you're at it. Ride a bike once in a while. Get a home energy audit, and use a programmable thermostat.

It's not oil companies that set the price of gas. It's the demands of consumers.

Wealth is already being redistributed - to the wealthy

John McCain and Sarah Palin are still at it, harping on Barack Obama for wanting to "spread the wealth around."

The fact is that money earned from actual work is taxed at far higher rates than money made from interest, capital gains, inheritances or corporate dividends. The higher tax rates paid by people who make their living by working are the main reason why the rich keep getting richer, while the rest of us struggle to keep up.

Our current tax structure is sickeningly unfair. Rolling back Bush's tax cuts to the wealthy will help level the playing field, and will return the deficit to where it was before he took office.

ACORN flap distracts from real election shenanigans

As near as I can tell, only a small percentage of the voter registrations turned in by ACORN were fraudulent. Most of those were already flagged as suspect by ACORN, which is required by law to turn in all signatures collected, so I hardly see how this is a great burden upon elections officials or a threat to "the fabric of democracy" as Republicans like to put it.

No, what really scares the Republicans is that ACORN has signed up millions of legitimate new voters who are unlikely to vote for them. Given that ACORN disproportionately represents poor black people, this seems like a last-ditch appeal to latent racism.Worse still, these attacks are a distraction from Republicans' own attempts to suppress the vote. Indiscriminate purging of voter rolls and a systematic failure to properly staff and equip Democratic-leaning polling places have stolen the vote from millions in the last two elections, and the damage done by overtly partisan voting machine vendors simply cannot be measured.

These problems will be even worse this year, and the Republicans are simply trying to make enough noise to drown out this important news.

What's wrong with spreading the wealth?

Class warfare is nothing new. The rich have been winning for a few years now, as our tax system increasingly rewards investment over work. To quote a popular phrase from Wednesday's debate, what's wrong with "spreading the wealth around" a little?

Thanks to economic changes I make less money than I used to. When I made more back in the Clinton era I paid higher taxes, and that's exactly as it should be. Historically, progressive taxation corresponds with greater economic growth and lower taxes. Those who benefit the most from our capitalistic system, and are struggling less to feed and house their families, should pay more to help run it. It's fair, and it works.

John McCain originally opposed George Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy, and now he supports keeping them in place. This flip-flop is one of the biggest reasons I cannot support him for President.