Fence Sitting

A recent AP/Yahoo! News poll found that 18 percent of voters can go either way in this election, and are unsatisfied with both candidates at this point.

As I see it, those sitting on the fence at this point are not paying attention to issues or facts. They too confused by political rhetoric and ignoring hard evidence.

Barack Obama makes sense for the following reasons:
1) He cares more about this planet's survival -- his commitment to developing alternative and renewable energy is eclipsed only by McCan't's commitment to "drill, baby, drill."
2) He wants to get us out of Iraq sooner rather than later -- he proposes a 16 month timetable to withdraw all major troops by the end of 2010, redeploying many of them to Afghanistan, which is the real central front of the war. McCan't has no timetable. Obama has been right repeatedly about the war and how disastrous it has been to our country's image around the world.
3) He is young, full of passion for the new, embraces change, and represents in a great sense the changing face of this country -- McCan't is old, fears change, and represents the desperate, corrupt, fading establishment that can't let go of power.
4) He wants the government to ensure that every American has health care coverage, and is willing to make deals with all parties to see that it happens -- McCan't is old-school; he wants to tax your health-care benefits, taking money out of your pocket all year long, to force competitiveness among health insurers (uh, yeah right).
5) He will see to it that the middle class pays less taxes -- right now the wealthiest still pay the largest percentage of the country's tax revenues (as it should be), but corporations and the very wealthy have taken advantage of a lax tax code to allow them to skirt the rules and pay less than what they should. He also wants to sunset the Bush tax cuts, while McCan't wants to make them permanent, even with a $10 billion monthly war bill and a $700 bailout plan on the table.
6) He wants to use diplomacy first -- he insists that military action be reserved as a last resort. McCan't, well, can't do that, because he doesn't know how to think beyond guns and tanks and bombs.
7) He has had one presidential decision to make so far -- the selection of his running mate -- and he has picked a seasoned and highly-respected veteran who is well-regarded around the world and who has a keen understanding of both economic and foreign policy challenges and opportunities. McCan't's one decision so far has been to select a press-timid, yet unscrupulous, political Medusa with Armageddonist visions, who in 43 years never left the United States (but who can see Russia from her kitchen window), who has a nanometer-thin grasp of the issues facing this country today (at least what she'd been able to glean from Faux News) and who in an unprecedented display of contempt for this country's need to know, refuses to be interviewed by the press.

If those 18% are still on the fence at this point, perhaps the debates will help move them one way or the other. If not, vote for Barr or McKinney, or Nader, or one of the other fringe candidates. Between the committeds and the leaners, Obama's pretty close to wrapping this thing up, both from an electoral view and popular vote.