Why I Voted For Barack Obama
Last week, I cast my vote for Barack Obama for President of the United States in the Commonwealth of Virginia because our country is in need of a new direction and our image needs to be restored around the world. I believe that Barack Obama and Joe Biden can accomplish that.
Economically, I want to return to the policies of the 1990’s that proved to be successful under Bill Clinton - which is essentially much of what Obama is promising. We need to spend our tax dollars on rebuilding and upgrading our nation’s infrastructure rather than going off to more expensive and ill begotten wars and continuing to bankrupt the nation.
I voted for Obama/Biden because I believe that we need to aggressively move toward 100% energy independence and move toward establishing the “green” jobs that will not only help to revive our economy, but help us to maintain our long term economic edge in the world. We can lead the world over the next 25 years away from fossil fuel dependence and toward clean technologies. The United States can potentially not only become energy independent, but begin to export this lucrative technology to other parts of the world.
I voted for Obama/Biden because our health care insurance system needs to be repaired and I am more confident in Obama’s plan as I believe that we need to take steps toward universal health care coverage.
I voted for Obama because I believe that we need to end the war in Iraq. Enough said
I voted for Obama because I believe that Biden is prepared to step in and be President while Palin clearly is not.
I believe that we need to have a figure in the Oval Office that inspires us to do better. One that leads by example and does not offering himself as the solution to everyone’s problems. We need a leader that sends a message that we all need to do our part to improve our personal lives as well as that of our families and our communities. This has been an important part of Obama’s message that has inspired millions of people.
I do not agree with every position that he has taken (I believe, for example, that we should begin offshore drilling as a bridge to the “green” technologies to insure that oil prices remain low), but overall he is the far superior candidate in this election.
My final reason is that I want to see history be made. (Yes, I said it) This is for my grandparents and all of my family that came before them that did not live to see how far our country has come. I want to see the struggles and sacrifices that they made honored.
This election is also for my sons who can see that - they too - can rise to the highest office in this land given tenacity and hard work. It is one thing to be told you can do it. It is another to see it. I strongly maintain that in no other country in the world is this possible.
Prediction?:
Many of us are ready to get this election over with and are tired of looking at all of the different polls and scenarios. Will McCain outperform the polls? Will there be a “Bradley Effect”? Will there be an Obama landslide? Will McCain win the electoral college and lose the popular vote? Will this? What if that? It is tiring. Everyone I speak to is hopeful (and even a little confident) of a victory, but are also feeling some anxiety that something may go wrong. Will they “steal” the election? Did people lie to the pollsters? Will blacks be turned away at the polls? What if people get discouraged at the long lines and wait? Are the machines really counting our votes?
A landslide would be nice, but I don’t expect one, so I am preparing for a long nerve-racking night at Busboys and Poets watching the results creep in with my friends. I think that the margin of victory here in Virginia will come down to a few thousand votes. I expect that Pennsylvania and Florida will also come down to the wire. McCain will probably win North Carolina by a few percentage points.
In the end, I think that Obama will eek out an electoral victory because he will hang onto Pennsylvania and barely win Virginia. On the other hand, if Florida falls early look for a landslide victory (although I am not counting on it)
I will be very disappointed if Obama does not win, but we will move on. We have come too far to give up now.
I encourage you to go out and vote for Obama if you have not done so already! Let’s make history
Filed under: Politics
http://news.uk.msn.com/newsweek.aspx?cp-documentid=10594756
Those reasons pretty much sums up why I also voted for Obama.
Someone passed me a card about coming to their club to watch the elections . I’ve never interested in clubs( and still isn’t), but I hope that the same young man will and other supporters will be able to celebrate his win.
I admit,. I’m a little anxious about these elections, but I’m trying to be level headed about it. I’m trying to be optimistic about it.I wouldn’t be surprised if there will be some cheating taking place with it. Still I have to be hopeful no matter what.
Even if Obama doesn’t get an honest win, he will be a man that I would be very proud of. He took a chance on doing the “impossible”. He has done something that no man of color have achieved. He’s a winner no matter how the elections goes.
I would have been agreeable to either until Palin was chosen as the VP candidate for the Republican party. A broad spectrum of the country would be quite happy with McCain as president, but as soon as Palin joined the ticket, I was ‘No way in heck!’
@ Tariq
RE: “Economically, I want to return to the policies of the 1990’s that proved to be successful under Bill Clinton - which is essentially much of what Obama is promising.”
Point of clarification:
Clinton’s economic policies had nothing to do with the economy during the 1990’s, and Obama would not be able to replicate what happened.
The economic growth of that era was driven by three things that happened almost simultaneously:
1. The promise and growth of biotech companies. Ultimately these companies failed to deliever on their promises to revolutionize medical research and drug discovery.
2. The deregulation of the telecommunications industry. This created a free-or-all in start-up companies offering services that were once the exclusive province of AT& T, Verizon, etc.
3. The growth of internet companies. The promises this sector made also fell far short.
4. Alan Greenspan kept interest rates low, and deregulated financial markets removing oversight, and sometimes cash reserve requirements for insuring derivative securities (swap contracts)–which were very risky.
Alan Greenspan called this era “irrational exuberance”, and it was. By 2,000 the biotech and .com companies were dismal failures. Investors reacted by throwing their money into more secure investments, which at that time was real estate. Because Interest rates were kept so low for so long, real estate exploded, and then bubbled. Eventually, like all bubbles, real estate burst into the economic disarray we see now.
All of that economic good time in the 90’s had nothing to do with Clinton policies, it had everything to do with Greenspan’s leadership at the Fed. Greenspan was a Reagan appointee.
OH MY GOD!!! I CAN’T BELIEVE IT!!!!! THE MAN DID IT!
I just in in total awe about it this! I temporarily went to sleep and I was awaken by a neighbors guns( I can tell it’s them because they are the first to get crazy on the holidays) . I guess it was meant for me to hear those gunshots, because I got to see the big 2-9-7 plus.
My late maternal grandmother and a good friend of hers who often would say that the ” bottom rail would rise to the top”. It was an incongruent sounding saying, but I wonder is this was what they meant by it? I have witnessed something that I thought I would, along with many others, would never see. Wow!
There were a few friends and relatives who came over. I ‘m childless, but my nephs and their younger cuz got to see this. My paternal grandmom said that she would stay up late to see it. I was looking at what John Lewis (D)was saying about this election. He fought for this. his many of his folks didn’t but I’m so happy that he was the one to see this grand occasion.
Obama came a long way. He over came many obstacles, obstacles that Black people have fought and died to for. Although many of them didn’t live to see this day, their fight wasn’t done in vain. Obama and people like him reminds me to dream the impossible and to keep pushing no matter what obstacles may go against them. I will always take his message to heart.
@ Daud
Good comment, i guess you just dispelled that myth that salafees are ignorant of world affiars.
@ ummadam
LOL!! That’s because we are aware that a “Salafi” knows that knowledge of worldly affairs is a part of his/her Deen. We also know that the scholars taught us that it is Fard Kiffayyah for some from the Ummah to obtain this knowledge. Most importantly, we know that worldly knowledge takes a backseat to Religious knowledge, and the scholars call to this!!!
P.S.
We are also aware that our Salaf excelled in both Religious and worldly knowledge–Shaykhul Islaam ibn Taymiyyah and Ibnul Qayyim were physicians. And that contemporary scholars such as Dr. Saleh as Saleh (Rahimahullaah) had a Phd in Biochemistry, and Abdullaah Jarboo’ was a chemical engineer and an executive in the petroleum industry before he became a scholar.
I understand sister the feelings you have of confusion over the election, I somewhat share those feelings. But in my heart I feel that to see justice in a place that has been so unjust for so long is good and is from Allah, no matter what, and all matters are decreed and are in the hands of Allah, the best of planners.
As a Muslim of African American descent, I wonder what Allah has in store for us, and when I see this moment in history take place before my 34year old eyes, a moment I did not think I would live to see, I believe Allah wants to raise those amongst my “tribe” “nation”, whatever you want to call it, and so perhaps this is one way to do this. Now, my black sons, who know they are Muslim, yet are constantly reminded that they are black, and so therefore less, now they can see that no one, white, Arab, or otherwise, no one other than Allah can elevate or debase an individual. If you now can become president, you now also can become a scholar in Islam, a hafiz, anything with the help of Allah, no matter who says otherwise, no matter the color of your skin. Some among mankind are able to believe this because they have seen this, they have lived this, they have seen great moments in their history as a tribe, but those of us who were brought here as slaves and cut off from our roots, maybe we need more confirmation, more to make us certain in a world were even those who call themselves Muslim will not allow their daughters to marry our sons, for no other reason other than the fact they are black. Do you think Allah wants us to think so low of ourselves? Do we not have the obligation to help the oppressed and stop the oppressor? So sister, I understand your feelings and when you want to know if a matter is wrong, consult your heart and pray that the turner of hearts will forgive us for arrogance or any malady of the heart. No one but Allah and those of us who have been placed in this time in this life will understand our struggle to just be, and so today I am happy and feel confirmation from Allah that we will now be allowed to just be, and acknowledged as part of the creation He fashioned. I feel that now, those who have denied us the God given right to be part of this universe, today, Allah has lifted one of us as a sign. It had to be one from amongst the people of the book, the world isn’t ready for the Muslim just yet. All these matters have been recorded by Allah long before. Today I am happy to be able to finally be looked upon as an equal human, no more, no less. Now I can go forward with what Allah has wanted from me. We were created to worship and today our soul has been acknowledged amongst mankind. I’ve been so low for so long as an African American woman, now placed lower as a Muslim in this time, but today, a part of me has been accepted, in sha Allah tomorrow, the rest.
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You are all SO funny - how disgusting to be so RACIST as to vote for any one to be the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES just because he is semi-black……..that is your ONLY reason . I don’t care what color he is, but you DO!!! Racist Idiots!
Don’t you consider the fact that just being BLACK doesn’t make a person qualified to be the PRESIDENT!!
If I were black, I would hope that our first black president was competent, smart & qualified …….Obama is none of the above. he wil disappoint Americans of all colors. Sad.