McCain and Obama: good people
As far as the issues go, I agree with very little of their views. Both have previously voted to expand our government massively, and both candidates have made campaign promises that would expand the federal government even more. I believe that neither candidate is in line with the Constitution nor the Founding Father’s intent for our great nation.
While I wouldn’t trust them leading our nation.or even a high school civics class, they both seem like good people. Both Obama and McCain exemplify the American Dream and thereby, the greatness of America.
Barack Obama was born to an interracial, multi-national couple. His father was from Kenya and his mother from Kansas. After the age of three, Obama only saw his father once during a brief trip to Africa before he was a teenager. Throughout most of his childhood he was raised by his single mother and his grandparents.
Despite this adversity, which might appear unconquerable to many, Obama thrived. He graduated from Columbia and was accepted into Harvard Law School shortly after. Many people would be content to go from humble beginnings to Harvard, but Barack Obama wasn’t content to stop there. In 1990 he became the first ever, African-American editor of the Harvard Law Review, graduating, magna cum laude, in 1991.
As much as I disagree with Barack Obama ideologically, I must admit he has a compelling story of personal success. Conservatives love hearing stories about Americans who pull themselves up by their own boot straps, and Barack Obama is a wonderful example of this.
John McCain comes from a long line of Americans who have spent their lives serving our nation. Both his father and grandfather were four star Admirals in the Navy. Senator McCain carried on this proud tradition as a Captain in the Navy. During his military career, McCain was best known for the five and a half years that he spent as a Prisoner of War in Vietnam. According to the Robert Timberg book, American Odyssey, John McCain spent two of these years in solitary confinement. According to John Hubbell’s book, “P.O.W.”, John McCain was tortured through rope bindings and beatings every two hours. Despite suffering for over half a decade in torturous conditions, John McCain never gave up.
For most people, 5 years of torture for your country would be enough national service. John McCain, however, entered the U.S. Congress in 1983 and has served in both houses of the legislative branch for the past 25 years. During those years he has been known as a bipartisan consensus builder. His bipartisan bills have included: Campaign Finance Reform, Comprehensive Immigration Reform, Global warming legislation, and patients bill of rights. In addition, John McCain has broken with his own party on important issues like the League of 14, which disabled Republicans from changing the filibuster rules. He also originally voted against the Bush tax cuts. McCain wasn’t even afraid to snub his nose at Christian Conservative leaders like Pat Robertson and the late Jerry Falwell whom he called “agents of intolerance”.
I respect John McCain’s record and his courage to take on his own party to serve America as he sees best. But unfortunately, Senator McCain has voted to increase government intervention in each of our lives far too much. While he might be a great man, he won’t make a great President.
However, Senators McCain and Obama show all Americans something we should never forget. No matter where you are in life, whether you’re being tortured in a Vietnamese POW camp, or you’re a minority child growing up with a single mother in a lower class home, never give up. If you work hard you can achieve almost any goal you want.
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Oct 24 2008. Filed under Opinion.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
