Longer explanation of my decision to support Obama

I’m a lifelong Republican who has been voting along party lines for 16 years *, and for the first time in my life I have decided to support a Democratic presidential candidate, Barack Obama.

After Romney dropped out of the race for the nomination I spent some time carefully looking over the issues information provided by each of the candidates, Democrats included.  When I read Obama’s Blueprint for Change I was struck to the core by what I read.  I was impressed by how clear and direct he was expaining the specific actions he was going to take as President.

After reading Obama’s Blueprint for Change I spent a couple of days doing some soul searching and came to the conviction that if real change is ever going to come to Washington D.C., it will only happen as a result of accountability and transparency reforms like the changes Obama is proposing. 

For almost 20 years I’ve watched my Republican party become increasingly captive to corporate special interests.  I’ve seen us pander to special interests in the insurance, investment, mortgage and petroleum industries.  And I’ve seen lots of friends lose thier jobs as a result of the way these industries are being managed.  My brother for one.  My wife for another. 

More recently I saw Exxon Mobile with 40.1 billion in profits last year, and all but 5 billion of this profit went directly to stockholder dividends (3.9 billion) and stock buy-backs to artificially inflate the value of the stock (32.2 billion).  I don’t think they are being over-regulated.  I don’t think they are paying more money to employees because they have more money from tax relief.  I do, on the other hand, think that I’m paying too much money for gasoline at the pump and for products everywhere which have to be shipped using diesel. 

I’ve done the math.  The problem with Washington D.C. right now isn’t progressive or conservative ideology, it’s big money lobbyists.  Even if we elected a new Congresss-person or Senator to every seat in both bodies we would still be faced with lobbyists spending four or five million per individual per year towards each and every legislator. 

When Obama says it’s time for change, he’s not just endorsing change for change’s sake.  He has clearly outlined everything he wants to do on his website under the Issue’s section.  I challenge everyone to go read what Obama has written, and then go to the other candidate’s pages.  See who is being clear and who is touting rhetoric.  See who offers concrete steps and see who is giving generalizations.

For me, after I did the research, my choice was clear:  I’m voting for Barack Obama in 08′.

* I mentioned in an earlier post that I’ve been a card carrying Republican for 21 years.  Actually I became eligible to vote 21 years ago; the first presidential election I voted in was in 1992 when I cast my vote for George H.W. Bush.