Can someone civily explain why they would vote for Obama?

DomS

Banned
Jul 15, 2008
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I only ask this because whenever I ask someone who vehemently supports him WHY they support him they start getting all riled up about how much 'hilary sucks' or 'we need change' or 'our country is doomed without him'. But no one has come up with a tangible reason why they're voting for him. Here's what I thought back when the primaries were still going on, and what I said then I think still applies now:


Leading up to Massachusetts? primary I wasn?t sure who I was going to vote for, but after a little bit of research I decided I liked Hilary much better. It really has to do with experience, and actual tangible platform issues, and the fact that Obama doesn?t seem to have either. As a democrat, I think one of the worst things that could happen for our party is for him to be elected president.

Like everyone else I was intrigued at first by Obama?s rhetoric; he?s very good at delivering speeches (which his writers give to him), I will give him that. He generally carries an uplifting message of ?change? and a ?yes we can? attitude. He also has massive support from the college-aged generation, as the younger generation can identify with him. Bill Clinton filled this role in the early 90s. Now it?s Barack?s. Someone in their mid 40?s is a candidate for the youth. Politics is funny like that.

The problem is that when you peel away the layers in the early campaigning there really isn?t anything behind his words. He will talk about change incessantly, and about making a difference, but he never articulated how he was going to do this. Saying, ?It is time for change, I will bring change? etc. is nice and all, but what does that even mean?? Anyone can say they?re going to ?change? things. People continued whip themselves into a frenzy over him however, and he ripped off a double digit streak of wins in the primaries; and the whole time, myself, my roommates, my parents, no one, could figure out why. My roommate said it best, ?He?s sprinkling fairy dust all over. He?s making all these vague promises and there?s nothing behind it. He has next to no experience with adversity, and if he gets elected, as soon as he meets any resistance from Republicans he?s going to crumble. Then we get to have another sweeping Republican victory in midterm elections, and then a republican president in four years.?

I couldn?t agree more. I dug up old articles on Obama from when he was a lawyer and starting his political career in Chicago. I couldn?t find a single negative thing written about him. Most articles sounded like everyone was afraid to say anything negative about him for fear of being called a racist by ignorant Obama supporters. Recently he has been facing more adversity as even mainstream media (FINALLY) is pointing out some flaws in his campaign. One of them involves a campaign senior official of his meeting with a Canadian politician regarding NAFTA. Essentially Obama has had some tough words for the agreement. Then his economic adviser meets with a Canadian politician and reassures him that Obama wouldn?t do anything to NAFTA. The problem is that Obama never even knew the meeting occurred. Next his camp denied the meeting had even taken place, or that if it did the adviser reiterated Obama?s stance. A quote from The Huffington Post, from their March 4th edition:

?For four days after a news report alleged that Sen. Barack Obama's economic adviser had told Canadian officials to ignore the Democrat's tough talk on trade deals, the campaign gave incomplete - and sometimes misleading - explanations of whether a meeting had even taken place.?

That?s where experience comes in. Bill Clinton was a philanderer and even he still kept his image relatively intact after Gennifer Flowers and all that, mainly because he had experience in dealing with adversity. Obama can?t keep track of who his senior officials are meeting with, and he?s going to monitor and direct a staff in the white house? The ?golden boy? image finally appears to be fading from him a bit. Then there?s the fact that Obama got a sweetheart deal on some land from a politician who was ALREADY under federal indictment at the time on corruption charges. I see that as worse than whitewater, as David Hale, the man who made the criminal accusations against the Clintons, was a con artist. He was known for setting up dummy companies, pillaging federal funds and SBA loans, and then letting the companies fail. His accusations were in direct conflict with earlier testimony to the FBI, and he only made the allegations after he came under federal indictment for one of these schemes in 1993). It all really just points towards Obama not having the seasoning yet to make smart political decisions, and NOT set his party back about a decade if he gets into office.

I mean he?s a decent senator, nothing spectacular, but really all he has going for him in a presidential race is his charisma, and that?s the problem. Most of the people that vote for Obama hate Hilary, though when I?ve directly asked why every single time all I get is ?Hilary SUCKS?? or ?Hilary sucks?she?s so cold?. Who cares? We elected Bush because Middle America found him to be a likeable guy and now he?s pretty much a unanimous choice for worst or 2nd worst president in history (Andrew Johnson gets my vote). It?s unfortunate that personality matters that much, because even the people that hate Hilary can?t seem to point to something tangible about her platform that they dislike. It?s always her they dislike. I?ve found his supporters to be extremely noxious actually, and their idea of a debate is repeating ?Hilary SUCKS?don?t say anything bad about Obama?.or I will be pissed? Wow?you sure showed me. His supporters seem a little too attached to his vague rhetoric, it makes it even harder to take him seriously.

Plus he's accepted more wall street money than even mitt romney had, when compared on the last day that romney was still in the republican primary. Remember when Bill Clinton was called America's Black President? A lot of people don't realize he cut more aid to minorities than any president before him. Obama will do the same, he's got all these African Americans voting for him, and he's going to do them worse than Clinton, all while wearing his hucksters smile, reading speeches someone else wrote for him, and pocketing more corporate money than even republicans do.

I just can NOT for the life of me understand why someone would vote for this guy.
 

Vic

Elite Member
Jun 12, 2001
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Because the only other option is to vote McCain? :confused:

Your logic doesn't make much sense to me. First, we don't have any of these 'howling jackal' Obama supporters here. Quite the opposite, all the howling jackal types here are the Obama hating kind, who go daily from one desperate lie to another. Maybe those types of Obama supporters you speak of exist on other sites, in which case you should go complain about them there and not here.
Second, you appear to be a Hillary supporter, but your argument for voting against Obama is based almost entirely off Bill Clinton's record. This makes no sense.
 

DomS

Banned
Jul 15, 2008
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Originally posted by: Vic
Because the only other option is to vote McCain? :confused:

Your logic doesn't make much sense to me. First, we don't have any of these 'howling jackal' Obama supporters here. Quite the opposite, all the howling jackal types here are the Obama hating kind, who go daily from one desperate lie to another. Maybe those types of Obama supporters you speak of exist on other sites, in which case you should go complain about them there and not here.
Second, you appear to be a Hillary supporter, but your argument for voting against Obama is based almost entirely off Bill Clinton's record. This makes no sense.

Really now?? What part the country are you in? We have a TON of the howling jackal obama supporters in the Northeast.


I was a hillary supporter yes, but my reason for voting against obama is that he has no tangible platform, no experience, is as big a fraud as I can remember on a democratic ticket, and is completely unqualified to run the country as he has no experience with adversity, since the media's tongue has been squarely nestled in his hind-quarters for a couple decades now.

I'm not saying I'd vote for Mccain...but I'm definitely not voting for obama.
 

RightIsWrong

Diamond Member
Apr 29, 2005
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I'll try.

Although I believe that he has some areas where he is not the ideal candidate for the job (foreign policy experience the primary), I think that he is intelligent enough without being to the point of stubborn and/or arrogant enough to believe that he is always right. I believe that he will consult with others who are more knowledgeable in those fields and will more often than not find the most correct path to walk down.

I believe that his election will be a boon on foreign policy as well because others will see an openness and willingness to talk (even though they might take that as a naivety that they can exploit which I think is shortsighted on their part), it gives the impression that we will return to a mindset that we had decades ago.

I also like some of the domestic items that he has advocated for (UHC, revamping of NCLB, etc) and believe that he will be a better manager of the economy than McCain.
 

nageov3t

Lifer
Feb 18, 2004
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I think McCain would make a better POTUS, but Obama represents the special interest groups that I support more than McCain.
 

StageLeft

No Lifer
Sep 29, 2000
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First, we don't have any of these 'howling jackal' Obama supporters here.
They don't howl, but they do hoot. Start a thread that criticizes Obama--even with some legitimacy--and responses will flood in about how the poster and or his statements are so completely off base that it's hilarity/stupidity to even say such things. There is not a single thread of real size in which a lot of people are mostly in agreement over a legitimate problem with Obama, such as his promise and subsequent withdrawal from his promise about filibustering TELCO immunity. There will always be some spin somewhere like it was the right thing to do. People are in fact buying into him without critical thought.

I did this too for a while. It was fun, but then when I realized he's actually not promoting any plan that will positively affect the middle class (lowers, sure, but not middle) except possibly avoiding a war that McCain would be more likely to get us into, I see no real leadership. I don't care about experience if it's behind a strong trend-bucking wise-before-his-time candidate, but Obama isn't that person. What public accomplishments does he have under his belt? He has done NOTHING of real merit. You hear of guys like Lieberman, Dodd, McCain, these are household names not just because of their age but because they're always behind real plans for change. Obama is a lip piece, he has been under the radar until this campaign. He doesn't bring enough to the table.
 

jonks

Lifer
Feb 7, 2005
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I like how he requests a civil reply but posts incendiary propaganda :)

"Your mother is a whore."
"Fuck you!"
"Hey, why are you so angry?"
 

Genx87

Lifer
Apr 8, 2002
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I have already stated my reason for voting McCain and ill do it again. Honestly if we were looking at a Republican majority or even a split congress. Obama would most likely get my vote. If not just to send a msg to the GOP leadership to shape up or fold up and let the GOP splinter into two parties. One the RINO's. The other small govt conservatives. But because while some of his idea's seem flawed, others do make sense.

Like the following. I like his idea of raising the progressive rolls on the top bracket and providing an extra deduction for middle class households. If he can manage to get us out of Iraq in any meaningful way it should reduce that burden by half(75-100 billion a year).

Those are items that can get done. I really dont expect much else out of him except govt expansion's and more burden on tax payers. I hate saddling portions of our populace with more taxation. But at least on that issue I think the middle class does actually see some benefit.

But Ill vote McCain this fall with the hope to slow down the Dem machine.
 

Xavier434

Lifer
Oct 14, 2002
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DomS, rather than give you reasons to support any particular candidate, let me just say that every side of every story you will encounter for the rest of your life will have its extremists. When it comes to election years, they come out of the woodwork more so we are all unfortunately exposed to them. The best thing and the only thing you can do is ignore all of them because regardless of what they support they are all equally worthless and counter productive. We have our share which frequent these boards too. Do not let these people sway your opinion about anything other than the fact that they are retarded and you are better than they are.

I'll leave the rest for you to figure out on your own when it comes to the election.
 

herm0016

Diamond Member
Feb 26, 2005
8,512
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Originally posted by: Vic
Because the only other option is to vote McCain? :confused:
First, we don't have any of these 'howling jackal' Obama supporters here.


do you really believe this?

OP, yes, we have these people on both sides of the fence. I am not sure on peoples reasoning either, but i think it has a lot more to do with voting against bush than anything else.

I am not going to vote for him, but if he really can succeed at the things he wants to do, then more power to him. I agree with some things he says, like expanding americorp, and bringing out the importance of volunteer work, lowering taxes on the middle class. The thing is, he says he is change, and then goes right back to being the same as every other politician. there is no way to pay for everything he wants to do with the plans he proposes.

 

Vic

Elite Member
Jun 12, 2001
50,422
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Originally posted by: DomS
Originally posted by: Vic
Because the only other option is to vote McCain? :confused:

Your logic doesn't make much sense to me. First, we don't have any of these 'howling jackal' Obama supporters here. Quite the opposite, all the howling jackal types here are the Obama hating kind, who go daily from one desperate lie to another. Maybe those types of Obama supporters you speak of exist on other sites, in which case you should go complain about them there and not here.
Second, you appear to be a Hillary supporter, but your argument for voting against Obama is based almost entirely off Bill Clinton's record. This makes no sense.

Really now?? What part the country are you in? We have a TON of the howling jackal obama supporters in the Northeast.


I was a hillary supporter yes, but my reason for voting against obama is that he has no tangible platform, no experience, is as big a fraud as I can remember on a democratic ticket, and is completely unqualified to run the country as he has no experience with adversity, since the media's tongue has been squarely nestled in his hind-quarters for a couple decades now.

I'm not saying I'd vote for Mccain...but I'm definitely not voting for obama.

My profile is public here. I live in Portland, OR. Where yes, we have tons of 'howling jackal' Obama supporters. I'm sure I could find 'howling jackal' McCain supporters in the Deep South too. So what?
But that's not what I said. What I said was that we don't have any of those types here on this forum, so if you want to complain about them, go to some forum where they do. Like NoQuarterUSA.net

:roll:

And really, you're coming off as one of the 'howling jackal' Clinton supporters. You sidestepped my comments, ignored where I pointed out your poor logic, and then come back with nothing but meaningless unsupported opinion. What if I were to say that the only reason Hillary had a shot and got favorable media was because she is a woman and married to Bill Clinton? I bet that would piss you off, right? And rightfully so IMO.

Okay, now look at your own posts, hold up that mirror to yourself, and get a clue.
 

TechBoyJK

Lifer
Oct 17, 2002
16,699
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I'm republican but I think I'm going to vote for him and hope he only gets a 4 year term. McCain scares foreigners more than bush does, because he's actually been to war, seems to have an axe to grind about wars, and I just don't think our country can take another 4 years of war mongering. We need a president with a peaceful image, something different than the typical white guy. I just hope his policies don't jack up the country too much, that he pretty much plays his part honestly, does what he thinks is right, and after a few years of image repair, we put in a more hardass president again.
 

Vic

Elite Member
Jun 12, 2001
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Originally posted by: herm0016
Originally posted by: Vic
Because the only other option is to vote McCain? :confused:
First, we don't have any of these 'howling jackal' Obama supporters here.
do you really believe this?
It's not a question of belief. It's fact. I count 7 rabid anti-Obama threads on ATPN's front page alone, all of them with completely unsubstantiated accusations, like Obama has a forged birth certificate, Obama is just like Bush, etc etc.
At the same time, I count no similar anti-McCain threads.

I invite you to prove me wrong.
 

Vic

Elite Member
Jun 12, 2001
50,422
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Originally posted by: bamacre
Originally posted by: Vic
Because the only other option is to vote McCain? :confused:

If that were true, I'd be voting for Obama. But I'm not. ;)

I've already explained to you that I cannot and will not vote for Bob Barr. This is a sore subject to me, in fact, how the Deep South George Wallace crowd has taken over the LP.
 

Red Dawn

Elite Member
Jun 4, 2001
57,529
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Originally posted by: Vic
Originally posted by: herm0016
Originally posted by: Vic
Because the only other option is to vote McCain? :confused:
First, we don't have any of these 'howling jackal' Obama supporters here.
do you really believe this?
It's not a question of belief. It's fact. I count 7 rabid anti-Obama threads on ATPN's front page alone, all of them with completely unsubstantiated accusations, like Obama has a forged birth certificate, Obama is just like Bush, etc etc.
At the same time, I count no similar anti-McCain threads.

I invite you to prove me wrong.
Well to be honest an anti Bush thread is the same as an anti McCain thread as most consider them one in the same and is #1 reason I believe most here
will be voting for Obama.

BTW this forum does have it's fair share of howling bitter Clinton supporters who can't seem to get over the fact that their candidate was not favored. We can add the OP to that group.
 

Xavier434

Lifer
Oct 14, 2002
10,373
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Digging through the internet trying to find valuable information regarding a presidential candidate is like sifting through a bargain bin of DVDs hoping to score one that normally sells for over $20. You can find what you are looking for, but you need to know how to separate the crap from the deals. There is lots of crap and usually many copies of it.
 

Young Grasshopper

Golden Member
Nov 9, 2007
1,032
380
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I am not hugely into politics. I do not follow McCain or Obamas past, and what they have accomplished and so forth. But the reason I support Obama is because of his heavy opposition of the war and wanting to get out, and his support for alternative energy sources. John McCain says rediculous things like him wanting to stay in Iraq 100 years if need be, his advisors telling the public to 'stop whining' about the economy. Curing our oil addiction by drilling for more. Criticizing Obama about how we will 'lose the war' if we pull out of Iraq too soon. Nobody cares about 'winning or losing' the war you fucking idiot. These people hardly put up a fight so how could it be a war in the first place. We invaded thier country on zero grounds so I can imagine why there might be some upset people. I don't really give a shit if he has experiance over Obama, George W Bush had 'experiance' as well. I'd rather take the unknown then another 4 year term of Bush.


This guy is just another stubborn old man who is out of touch with what is going on in America. It sure as hell doesn't help that his advisors are as well.
 

bamacre

Lifer
Jul 1, 2004
21,029
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Originally posted by: Vic
Originally posted by: bamacre
Originally posted by: Vic
Because the only other option is to vote McCain? :confused:

If that were true, I'd be voting for Obama. But I'm not. ;)

I've already explained to you that I cannot and will not vote for Bob Barr. This is a sore subject to me, in fact, how the Deep South George Wallace crowd has taken over the LP.

I didn't say you should. Just that there are actually more than two choices.
 

Robor

Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
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Originally posted by: bamacre
I didn't say you should. Just that there are actually more than two choices.

Maybe but until things change and it doesn't come down to Choice A or Choice B a vote for Choice C is the same as the winner of A and B. ;)

 

sportage

Lifer
Feb 1, 2008
11,492
3,162
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Can someone civily explain why they would vote for Obama?
Since most of his supporters come off like howling jackals

Damm it John Sidney Mccain... your wife TOLD you to stop posting in the forum and looking for porn on her pc. Now...JOHN...





 

PELarson

Platinum Member
Mar 27, 2001
2,289
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Why vote for Obama, simple.

Obama has the potential to be a good President, McCain doesn't.

 

Robor

Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
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In re-reading the OP... Anyone find it odd that a Clinton supporter can't even spell 'Hillary' right? I don't mean to nit-pick but 7x?