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Congratulations President Elect Obama

I can’t claim that the election went as I wanted last night, but I do recognize that is part of living in a Representative Democracy. No matter how I voted though it was a historic moment for our country yesterday. I want to take a second and congratulate Barack Obama and Joe Biden on winning the presidency/vice presidency. President Elect Obama ran a tremendous hard-fought campaign and it does make me proud that we were able to put aside some of the differences and biases that exist in our country to elect the first African-American President. I hope that this election will lead to true healing in our country and help us to move past the injustices of the past.  I have nothing but best wishes for our new President and I hope that he will lead us into a promising future built upon the principles that make this country great. Becca and I used this election last night as a teaching opportunity for our children. We said that when you vote you make your choice for the person you believe will best represent you, but when the election is decided you support the decision of the public, and stand behind the person that gets elected.

I also want to congratulate John McCain. While Senator McCain didn’t win, he did run a tremendous campaign himself and gave an outstanding concession speech last night. Senator McCain is still a hero in my book, and I thank him sincerely for his service to our country.

As we move forward it will be interesting to see how this election changes or impacts future elections. My friend Harry has an interesting take on how the next several years will go. I don’t agree with him as you might imagine, but I do think that he makes interesting points, and his prediction on this election was must closer than mine was. I also want to take a moment to congratulate him and my other friends who voted for the Democrats in this election. Yesterday was a tremendous victory for your party, and I wish you well as you move forward in leading the country. Hopefully you will learn the lessons the Republicans failed to grasp and realize that the country is not nearly as Red or Blue as people might have you believe.

I Hope You Will All Vote Today

Today is Election Day in the United States. I hope that no matter if you are a Democrat, Republican, Third Party, or Independent that you will take some time today to make you voice be heard. We are fortunate to be citizens in this great country and this is our chance to help elect people at the city, county, state, and country level to help solve te many issues this country faces. I view this day as a chance to excercise our responsibilities as citizens. Please go out and make you voice gets heard.

I Cast My Vote Today

I suspect that anyone who reads my blog regularly will not be surprised that I voted for John McCain for President. This is a decision I came to several weeks ago, but I have been following the campaign to see if something would happen causing me to change my opinion. I have tremendous respect for Barack Obama, but don’t agree with him on many issues and didn’t think he was the right leader for this country at this time. I have decided to explain the reasons I chose Senator McCain in this important election. I’m sure that there are many people that will disagree with these reasons, and I hope they study out the issues themselves and come to their own determination. I have many friends who look at the same issues I do and make a different determination as to the correct solution. I respect that as diversity is one of the things that makes this country great and nobody or no party has the right solution to every issue. 

Economy

I believe that with the major issues with the economy right now it is important to have a candidate that has more experience and will be more friendly towards small business and the free market. I know that the Republicans are getting hammered on the economy right now and the bailout, but I believe that Orson Scott Card, a Democrat, makes a strong case that the Democrats have a large part of the blame themselves. 

Military

I support the Iraq War in the sense that I believe we need to finish what we started, even though we made a mistake going there in the first place. I also think that I would rather have someone who served in the military leading this country because he truly understands the sacrifices that the members of our armed services make in defending this country.

Experience

With the many issues facing our country I think it is critical to have someone who has significant experience in making tough decisions and crisis management. I also want a president who knows how the Federal Government works and more significantly doesn’t work, and will know how to navigate the rough waters of bureaucracy.

Working Across The Aisle

Senator McCain has shown that he isn’t afraid to cross up his own party and work with Democrats to solve problems. It is apparent to me that the parties are going to have to work together to solve problems and I believe Senator McCain can do that more effectively.

Taxes

The government needs to try and take as little of my money as possible. The fact is the government is not entitled to my money. I worked for it, they did not. There is a need for government programs, but there is also a responsibility to be accountable for the money these programs need to spend. The government cannot and should not attempt to solve everyone’s problems. I understand that the government needs money to operate, I just expect them to take as little as they can. In this I expect that Senator McCain will try and limit the amount of taxes I pay.

Conclusion

I accept the fact that Senator Obama will likely win this election. While I won’t vote for him if he does win I will support him and pray for him during his term(s). Personally I think being the President is a thankless job, and I think the president takes a tremendous beating for things that are often out of his/her control. As always I also hope that the winner of this election really needs to work with both parties in order to help this country move forward. We have tremendous opportunities and talents in this country if we can stop fighting long enough to work together.

Thoughts on the Candidates

A few months ago I wrote about my thoughts on the Presidential candidates while Hillary Clinton was still in the race. Now that we have Barack Obama and John McCain as the nominees though I thought I would update my post a bit. As a reminder I consider myself both fiscally and socially conservative so I freely admit to leaning toward McCain however I do my best to try and look at the individual strengths and weaknesses of the candidates.

John McCain

Strengths

• Ability to work across the aisle – Unlike some of my conservative friends I believe this is an important characteristic to have as the President. We need the ability to put aside partisan differences in order to solve some of the major issues our country faces.
• Military service – Not everyone will agree with me here, but I feel that it is beneficial for the President to have served in the military so that he/she really understands the cost of putting our troops in harms way.
• Not beholden to the party – McCain has been a maverick his entire career. In my opinion the President needs to put the party platform aside as needed and lead the country based on his own ideals. This is one area where I respected Bill Clinton as the President. He knew when the Republicans had a good idea, and he supported it. I believe McCain would do the same things with Democrat proposals.

Weaknesses

• Health – I suspect some people reading this will relate it purely to McCain’s age. Actually the part that concerns me more has to do with the treatment that McCain received while a POW. He has given a lot of service to his country, but that service took an awful toll on his body. I am concerned how the pressure of 4 or 8 years as the President will wear on him.
• Temper – It is pretty widely acknowledged that McCain has a pretty hot temper. While this is characteristic that many people share, it is one, that in my mind is dangerous for the President of the United States to have. Even when action is taken against our country such as 9/11 it is important that the President can remain cool in the crisis and help lead us out of it. I am not sure McCain can do that.

Barack Obama

Strengths

• Great communicator – Obama has the ability to connect with people. Since we face a time of crisis in our country this is an important ability to have. Ronald Reagan, and John F. Kennedy had the same charisma and communication ability. I think this is important as the President has to talk to the American people regularly about important topics.
• Message – Some will see this the same as being a great communicator, but in my mind the message Obama is delivering is as important as the way he delivers it. Like many people I am tired of the way Washington D.C. runs and would like to see a fresh point of view brought in. This is where Obama’s message of change appeals to me.

Weaknesses

• Lack of leadership experience – I’m not trying to claim Obama would be a bad President. The fact is that his experience is limited though, and it bugs me how this has been treated by the media. The fact is that this could be good or bad depending on what you think of the direction of our country and Washington D.C. specifically. For me I want a President who has a number of years of experience working with all three branches of government since this is an important function of the President.
• Courage of convictions – As I’ve followed the campaign it seems that Obama has changed his messages a few times. When one is seeking the presidency, over many months, there are going to be occasional times when the message requires fine tuning, changing, whatever, but it seems like Obama has to clarify his messages on a regular basis. It really makes me wonder exactly what it is he believes in.
• Judgement – I really question how the choice of Joe Biden benefits Obama. If Mr. Obama was not trying to run the message of change Biden would of been a fine choice, but when you are trying to change how Washington D.C. works it seems like a poor pick in my opinion. I would of liked Obama to pick a Senator or Governor who had experience, but was more willing to question the establishment. I would of liked to see someone like Joe Lieberman get chosen. That would of shown a more consistent message of change.

Conclusion

I tried not to list a strength of one candidate as a weakness of the other. This was intentional as it is not a scale where the inexperience of Obama is balanced out by McCain’s term in the Senate. I tried to look at each candidate individually and think about what I thought the plusses and minuses are.  I also did not try and give each candidate a certain number of strengths and weaknesses in order to support McCain. I thought about each candidate and tried to quickly list the areas I thought helped and hurt them.

Technorati Tags: Politics,Election,John McCain,Barack Obama,Presidency

2008-2009 Seattle Seahawks Record Prediction

I guess that since the NFL season began tonight I should get my annual prediction about the Seahawks record published so I can look back and see how wrong I was at the end of the year.

If I am right the Hawks will go 11-5 and win the NFC West once again. At home they will go 7-1 with their only home loss coming to the New England Patriots. On the road they will go 4-4 losing to the Giants, Buccaneers, Cowboys, and Cardinals. Hopefully if I am wrong it is in the losses column, and not with the predicted wins. Truthfully I expect that 11-5 or 10-6 is about how good they are this year.

Technorati Tags: Seattle Seahawks,NFL,football,predictions

What Does It Mean To Be A Fan?

I was listening to KJR-AM Sports Radio the other day. There was a discussion about what it means to be a true fan. Basically the question was if you are a true fan if you stop going to games when the team is bad. Being a Seattle sports fan  have seen my fair share of bad teams recently: Seattle Mariners, Washington Huskies, former Seattle Supersonics. There were a number of people making the case that you need to go to games no matter how bad the team is, or they might move, as the Sonics did.

I consider myself a true fan. I really do and I enjoy going to games, but I can’t bring myself to spend money to attend games when the team sucks, especially if it has been a few (or more) years since they were good. When the Mariners were good back in 2001 I attended 9 games during the season, not a lot but I had a very young family. This year when the Mariners are truly awful I have gone to 1 game. To some people I guess this makes me a bandwagon fan.

Arguing that I’m a bandwagon fan though is ridiculous for a few reasons. Here are my thoughts on why you shouldn’t go to games when the team is bad:

1. If you keep spending your money to attend games when your team sucks then what incentive does the owner have to improve the team? None! He or she will only care that you are continuing to pay without the team making a commitment to winning.
2. In what other endeavor do people pay over and over for a substandard product? If a band makes a lousy CD it is likely that their tour will generate a lot less revenue. Movie stars who appear in bad movies find themselves insignificant or unemployed pretty quickly.
3. Sports are not charities. I don’t go to a game because I feel bad for the players. They are making millions of dollars or at least getting a free education to console themselves with when they are on a substandard team.

Even though I don’t attend games when the team is bad I do continue to support them. I want to see them do well, and I hope that the players find a way to turn things around. I continue wearing the team apparel since that is a sunk cost anyway. The team does have to start winning before I will go back to the games though. Ultimately I feel like my money goes towards being entertained so I need to be getting my moneys worth. If that makes me a bandwagon fan then I guess that’s what I am. In any case I really want to see the Huskies and Mariners improve and start winning again. As for the OKC Thunder (formerly the Sonics) I hope they continue to suck for all time. At least I’m not bitter…:-)

Technorati Tags: Sports,Fan,Seattle Mariners,Washington Huskies,Seattle Sonics,Oklahoma City Thunder,baseball,football,basketball