Back to the issues... Looking at the Issues - Part 2

So I want to get back to discussing the issues and giving my opinions on the candidates' policies. So, here we go!...

So I'm back on procon.org. I left off with Immigration. I'm starting off following that with Iran...

Iran. The section on Iran on procon.org presents the question about whether the US should use military action against them if they do not dismantle their nuclear program. It says that McCain is not clear on his stance on this issue and that Obama is clearly against it.

But the most important issue for me regarding Iran is diplomacy. Obama has stated that he wants to open a dialog with Iran without any preconditions. McCain says you have to have preconditions or you are validating their thoughts on Jews, Israel, and other of their extreme views.

I'm on Obama's side on this. You can't improve relationships by being an antagonist. You can't make other countries feel like you think you are better than them because you are setting terms and conditions for your willingness to even talk to them. Diplomacy involves being willing to talk and working towards peaceful solutions. Not even being willing to talk is not going to change anything. You have to take the chance and talk. Not talking will get you nowhere.


Iraq. There are several questions discussed here. The first question is was invading Iraq a mistake? Obama says Yes, McCain says No.

Again, I'm with Obama on this one.

We were told that we needed to invade Iraq because of the imminent threat of their possession of weapons of mass destruction. Our military has been in Iraq for 5 1/2 years now. Not ONE WMD has been found in that time. NOT ONE. We were tricked into this military action under false pretenses and bad intelligence.

In the meantime, billions of dollars, money that could have been used to help US citizens here, have been spent in Iraq to rebuild the country we unnecessarily destroyed. Thousands of US troops have lost their lives, not to mention the thousands and thousands of Iraqis who have been killed and might not have been if we had not attacked. We didn't finish the job in Afghanistan and now that situation is spiraling out of control again. The country itself is out of control. The opinion of the US internationally has never been lower because of what we've done in Iraq and the policies of George Bush. It's just been an overall bad deal for Americans. None of this would have happened if we had not attacked.

People want to argue that we needed to take this action to fight terrorism and depose Saddam Hussein. There were no terrorists in Iraq! Saddam controlled that country and would not allow terrorists to control anything there. There was no threat of terrorists in Iraq. Also, Iraq had NOTHING to do with 9/11. That was another excuse.

We attacked a basically defenseless country without cause. Why? Oil. Money. Watch Fahrenheit 911 some time and you'll see what I'm talking about.

The next question had to do with has the war made America safer? McCain still argues for the war, but is not clear on this question. Obama says it has not. If anything, he thinks it has made things worse.

My opinion? Iraq has become a hotbed for terrorist activity since the war started whereas it was not before the war. In the meantime, the Afghanistan situation has gotten worse making it an even safer harbor for terrorists. Things are worse than they were.

The final question is should we set a timetable for withdrawing from Iraq? McCain says No, Obama says Yes.

Again, I agree with Obama. We cannot afford to endlessly stay in Iraq with no end in sight, both financially and practically. We "liberated" the people of Iraq from Saddam Hussein to give them a chance at democracy. How can they ever form their own democracy while constantly being in a militarily controlled state? Now, I'm not saying that we should set a date and just pull out at that time. You can't do that. But you need to have a plan, a goal, to try to accomplish. You cannot just pull out of ground conditions will not allow that. And I don't believe Obama is stupid enough to just set a date and pull out if Iraq is not ready for us to do that. But what he is suggesting is setting that goal and giving the Iraqis back their country as soon as possible. The Iraqis have even said they would like us to leave. So why would we stay there?

At some point you have to let the bird out of the nest. You have to give the Iraqis a chance to run their own country. We can be there at their beck and call to help them if they need it but we have to give them a chance, we have to get out, we have to start focusing on our own country and focus on helping ourselves as recent circumstances have proven (economy, housing, unemployment, etc.)

Obviously, I'm with Obama on this issue.

Gays in the military. McCain supports the "Don't ask, don't tell" philosophy. Obama says it should be repealed.

I don't think a person should disqualified for anything based on race, gender, or sexual orientation. If a gay person wants to serve his or her country, I don't think that they should be prejudiced against from doing so. I know they could potentially have a hard time with prejudice in the military but I would hope rules would be enacted to protect them.

Obama seems more gay-friendly than McCain, another reason I like him.

BTW, a different section states that McCain supported anti-gay marriage rights legislation in Arizona. That's great. Not only do we have Bush already in the presidency not looking out for the rights of all Americans, including gays, we have a candidate who also is bigoted against gays. That's exactly the type of open-minded, for all people person we want running our country.


Social Security. McCain is for at least some privatization. Obama seems to be against it.

I'm torn on this issue. Considering that it's been said that Social Security will run out some time in the future, having the opportunity to invest retirement funds for myself certainly appeals to me. However, if the system can be fixed, I do think it should not be killed. I'm not sure what to make of this issue.


Stem cell research. McCain is against it, Obama is for it.

Stem cell research is very important. It has the possibility of wiping out countless numbers of diseases and medical maladies. The only reason people oppose it are for religious purposes. But this research could do so much to improve the quality of human life that it needs to be further allowed.

Again, I follow Obama.


Taxes. McCain wants to keep the Bush tax cuts, giving preference to the wealthy and businesses. Obama wants to repeal then and offers a new plan that will give a high number of tax cuts to the poorest and middle-class Americans, while raising taxes for the richest Americans and closing the loopholes for businesses that abuse the tax code to pay a ridiculously low tax rate.

So Obama wants to give tax cuts to the average Americans while raising taxes on the wealthy so that they are paying a closer tax rate to the rest of us. What's wrong with that? Right now the wealthiest Americans don't pay as high a percentage of taxes as the rest of us. Why shouldn't they? I have no problems with this.

I do have some concerns with raising taxes on businesses as this could affect the prices of goods and maybe even cost some people their jobs, but Obama has said he would look at this and maybe do things differently for businesses. But as far as the wealthiest Americans... they got that way off the backs of the rest of us. They should chip in as much as the rest of us do... or more.



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So those are some of the more important issues and issues where McCain and Obama differ in their opinions. There are more things discussed on procon.org and I encourage you to visit this site if you would like to see more on the candidates' positions. http://2008election.procon.org/viewresource.asp?resourceID=1561

I'll come back to this again and when we are closer to the election, I'll summarize my views on the positions and why I think you should vote for Barack Obama. But for now, this is what I have for you.