A Letter to the President of the Free World

The Vote

Let’s now fast forward to election day. I wouldn’t normally discuss my vote, but I feel it crucial to this part of the essay. First, let me mention the last televised debate. Up to this point, I was back and forth between who to vote for: McCain or Obama. The previous debate had me leaning towards McCain: he had carried himself well, and Obama’s responses stacked against McCain’s left the former’s youth and inexperience very apparent.

But in the final televised debate, McCain lost his cool at the end and allowed his arrogant nature to shine through; a quality in him that had deturred me before when he was disparaging Mitt Romney, earlier in the race. Conversely, in this final debate, Obama came off as very cool, controlled, level-headed, and in the peak of his charisma. It seemed that I had made my decision. I was ready to vote!

But on election day, as I was about to head out the door, my conscience started weighing heavily upon me and urged me to find out more about each candidate’s platform. So far, I had made my decision based solely on what was spoon-fed to me by the media and from the occasional televised debate. As of yet, I had not actually asked myself, “How do their platforms differ.” Not how do they “say” they differ from each other, but factually what was really the difference? And I would venture to say that I wasn’t alone. So far, most of the people that I had talked to about the two candidates didn’t know what their stances were either. They could tell you how well they carried themselves on camera, sure, or which one seemed to answer questions better on TV (if they even knew that much), but this really doesn’t tell someone what they need to know in order to vote for the next President of the United States.

So I went to their websites. First to McCain’s where I analyzed point by point what he stood for. The conclusion that I reached was this: He was saying that we’re in a difficult situation with the war in Iraq and with our economy. We can rise above it and return our country to better times, but it wouldn’t be easy; it would take hard work, some sacrifice and patience, but with diligence and good policy, we would eventually conquer. I was sincerely surprised to see how much I agreed with McCain and the “realistic” approach with which he was tackling the issues. There was actual “substance” to what he was saying. Most points had a reasonable gameplan layed out as to how he would solve the issues. I came away from his website with a sense of “assurance”.

Then I went to Obama’s website. It was surprising how similar the two candidate’s platforms really were. Point for point, they sounded nearly alike, except for this nagging feeling that I had when reading Obama’s words. While he was pointing out some very crucial issues, there didn’t seem to be any substance there. Sure, he was describing the problems that we face acurately, but where were the solutions? It was just filled with this kind of optomistic speaking, but lacking in any kind of real commitment to how to solve them; all the right words, but no conclusions. Yes, I saw it even then.

After analyzing their words, from the two respective websites, I was shocked to find myself in McCain’s favor. I hadn’t really expected this, but the evidence was there: I walked away from McCain’s website assured of what he stood for and planned on doing. Whereas, looking at Obama’s left me feeling “unresolved” and hesitant. Something was just missing.