1. Obama was against the Iraq war from the start. Very few politicians had the integrity and the judgment to know that the Iraq war was a mistake before it began. John McCain certainly did not. McCain was one of the many politicians who thought Iraq would be a short easy war and that American soldiers would be "greeted like liberators" in Iraq.



2. Obama will lower taxes for people making less than $111,645 per year (that includes me, unfortunately!) more than John McCain will. McCain has been running many misleading advertisements which make the claim that Obama is raising taxes across the board. That is not true. Obama is only raising taxes for the very rich and for corporations (who have not paid their fair share of taxes.)

For 90% of Americans, Obama's plan will bring lower taxes than McCain's will. This is an important fact not only because of the lower taxes that most Americans will pay but also because it speaks to McCain's lack of integrity. McCain continues to run ads which disingenuously claim a vote for Obama is a vote for higher taxes.

3. Obama is pro choice and will nominate pro choice judges for the Supreme Court. McCain has said he will be a "pro life President." Nobody is pro-abortion. It's not the role of the government to tell a woman what she can do with her own body.

If you believe in a woman's right to choose it is essential that you support Barack Obama as it's very likely the next President will be nominating 2 to 3 Supreme Court Justices. If McCain is the one nominating those judges, it's very possible that Roe V. Wade could be reversed.

4. Foreign policy. Obama showed he had far superior foreign policy judgment with his stance on Iraq. The things he said about the Iraq war before it had even begun all turned out to be true. We need a President who has judgment and the ability to know when and where to strike. The shoot first ask questions later cowboy mentality of the Bush/Cheney administration would be made even worse by McCain who, as Pat Buchanan put it, would make "Cheney look like Gandhi."

5. International respect. George W. Bush has been a huge embarrassment for Americans. People all over the world now think of Americans as morons. Barack Obama is already loved all over the world. He is a brilliant speaker who understands the nuance of how to converse with people from different cultures. He's preferred in Europe over McCain by enormous margins. Obama as President would instantly make America popular again.

6. Health care. While I do not believe that Obama's health care plan is the universal plan that our country really needs, it is a good step towards a better plan and it will help to lower overall health care costs. McCain's approach would hurt more than help. There would be even more people without health care with McCain as President.

7. Energy. While McCain is harping on the ridiculous non-issue of off shore drilling because he knows it plays well to the many uneducated voters in this country, it is Obama who has a real plan for energy independence. McCain's off shore drilling plan would only help to make extremely rich oil companies even more rich. It would not lower gas prices.