Brother AK...with Obama and Biden on the other side of this trade, how can you possibly say this with a straight face???
I give Luke credit for supporting and maintaining his ABO stance through and through. No room for wiggle, no chance of changing his mind. I honestly think he would vote for a magical being or a made up candidate, anything or anyone but the President. Doesn't say much for how little he thinks of America as a Country, or his fellow Americans, but he is steadfast nonetheless.
I voted for Obama last time and knew that the expectations of him would be impossible to meet. I don't feel as many others here do that Obama is fundamentally bad and dishonest, or that he is a socialist and harbors an anti american streak. I think he was just not suited by experience to excel in the task he had at hand. He arrived at the White House with a challenge to an incoming president probably greater than any other save Washington 1789, Lincoln 1860, and FDR 1932, and perhaps Nixon 1968. These were points of great inflection in the nation's history. I think we are in a similar period now, within and without. Only a great man, or woman, amazingly resourceful, with incomparable political skills could have met the challenge to provide leadership, tamp down divisions, corral an unruly congress, and spur on the country's people to believe in itself and its future and unite the people in a common cause. It's much easier to fail in the White House rather than succeed in doing important productive and great things. Obama's record has been mixed. Bush', a disaster, Clinton, mixed but good. Bush Sr. was a good man, prudent, effective, and good executive. Reagan, mixed, good, bad, ugly and great. Carter, a noble failure. Ford. Who cares? Nixon, tragic, but with flashes of greatness. LBJ, probably the single most powerful President ever in terms of effecting legislation and bending the congress to his will. Vietnam was his achilles heel. Oh, who am I going to vote for? I am a fiscal conservative but believe in Keynesian action when necessary. When do you employ Keynes? When it's necessary, that is the art of governing. I don't believe in confiscatory taxation or redistribution. I believe tax dollars should be wisely spent where necessary by merit and not greed or cronyism. I oppose the estate tax in anything other than its original conception: to break up multigenerational accumulations of enormous wealth. And the purpose of it back in 1920 may not be relevant today anymore anyway. Taxing a guy with $20,000,000 at 55% is confiscation. 10% is not. I am uncomfortable with the degree of wealth disparity in the US. I think the banks have been absolutely predatory on the middle classes with its lending schemes, particularly credit cards and usorious rates. The Government as well with student lending, which has probably been the principal driver in the relentless rise in education costs. If people could not find the means to pay for college, I guarantee you higher education in the US would become more affordable, and the quality of education would not suffer. I belive we should cut back on defense spending and exit Afghanistan. We should re-write the nation's drugs laws and legalize pot,and reclassify cocaine, peyote, and mushroom, in effect decriminalizing them. State governments with the Feds should work with energy companies and environmental groups to find standards to ensure drillers frack safely and exploit natural gas vigorously. You know where I stand on abortion, an important issue for me, and gay marriage, which is not important for me but I think is right. I'll probably vote for Obama, unless Romney is reborn somehow between now and November