Why would a Republican vote for Obama? This week in Table Talk, one reader explains.
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Aug. 01, 2008 |
Good evening, everyone.
Work and family issues have kept me away for the last seven weeks.
I work in the insurance industry in downtown Boston. People are staying off the roads in droves thanks to high energy prices and our business is down 40 percent from last year. Since my company has not chosen to diversify its geographic base and since I'm the newest employee in my department and both single and childless, I'm out of a job.
As you might imagine, I'm more than a little annoyed. (Thank God, I refinanced my mortgage before the rates climbed.) I left a stable, albeit lower paying, job early this year to take the position in Boston. I'm eligible for unemployment benefits, I got a decent severance package and my company has informed me I'm eligible for rehire.
In other words, you can officially mark me down as an Obamacon or Obamalican, or whatever you call those of us on the Republican side who are fed up with Bush and the current Republican Party and who will support the Democratic nominee this November.
While I admired Senator Obama's Clinton slaying prowess and respected his skills as an orator and politician, I had no serious plans to vote for him. But things have become worse in the last two months for both myself and the country as a whole.
Yeah, I don't agree with Barack Obama on the Iraq war or on 65-70 percent of his policy positions, but something's got to give. As much as I respect Senator McCain, he just doesn't get it.
John McCain's idiotic attacks on Obama's patriotism, taken together with his reversals of his previous (and admirable) positions on major issues (the Bush tax cuts, offshore drilling, etc.) and his willingness to associate with pond scum like Karl Rove and Company, have pushed me out of his camp. The John McCain of eight years ago is no more. The so called "Maverick" is an establishment tool who, if elected, will owe plenty of favors to the kind of corporatists and party hacks -- the defense industry, the oil companies, shitheads like King Karl -- who've helped make such a mess of things in the last seven and a half years.
We, the Republican Party, are not worthy and do not deserve another four years. Under President Bush we've betrayed every principle we've stood for as a national party -- fiscal responsibility and discipline, limited government and a foreign policy guided by realism and coalition building.
Competence and integrity have no ideology. Obama in '08.
http://www.salon.com/tt/best/2008/08/01/best/print.html
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[FONT=times new roman, times, serif]
Aug. 01, 2008 |
Good evening, everyone.
Work and family issues have kept me away for the last seven weeks.
I work in the insurance industry in downtown Boston. People are staying off the roads in droves thanks to high energy prices and our business is down 40 percent from last year. Since my company has not chosen to diversify its geographic base and since I'm the newest employee in my department and both single and childless, I'm out of a job.
As you might imagine, I'm more than a little annoyed. (Thank God, I refinanced my mortgage before the rates climbed.) I left a stable, albeit lower paying, job early this year to take the position in Boston. I'm eligible for unemployment benefits, I got a decent severance package and my company has informed me I'm eligible for rehire.
In other words, you can officially mark me down as an Obamacon or Obamalican, or whatever you call those of us on the Republican side who are fed up with Bush and the current Republican Party and who will support the Democratic nominee this November.
While I admired Senator Obama's Clinton slaying prowess and respected his skills as an orator and politician, I had no serious plans to vote for him. But things have become worse in the last two months for both myself and the country as a whole.
Yeah, I don't agree with Barack Obama on the Iraq war or on 65-70 percent of his policy positions, but something's got to give. As much as I respect Senator McCain, he just doesn't get it.
John McCain's idiotic attacks on Obama's patriotism, taken together with his reversals of his previous (and admirable) positions on major issues (the Bush tax cuts, offshore drilling, etc.) and his willingness to associate with pond scum like Karl Rove and Company, have pushed me out of his camp. The John McCain of eight years ago is no more. The so called "Maverick" is an establishment tool who, if elected, will owe plenty of favors to the kind of corporatists and party hacks -- the defense industry, the oil companies, shitheads like King Karl -- who've helped make such a mess of things in the last seven and a half years.
We, the Republican Party, are not worthy and do not deserve another four years. Under President Bush we've betrayed every principle we've stood for as a national party -- fiscal responsibility and discipline, limited government and a foreign policy guided by realism and coalition building.
Competence and integrity have no ideology. Obama in '08.
http://www.salon.com/tt/best/2008/08/01/best/print.html
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