This year's presidential election in the United States is likely to be the most important election in many of our lifetimes. This article isn't intended to convince you to vote one way or another but instead provide information on what changes and solutions each candidate supports without focusing on what doesn't matter which is what much of us see on traditional media. When voting, one should have a very clear understanding of what policies, laws, and bills will be affected should that president take office.

Just as most of history has shown, the democrats and republicans both have an intelligent view of how they believe we can improve our nation's state. They see the same issues but they each have very different ways for solutions.

The unpopularity of George W. Bush has allowed the senate and house to be won over by the democratic candidates and current national polls show that Barak Obama is currently trending 4 percent higher than rival John McCain. The short term impacts of what his decisions have allowed made this nearly a given but with the president's power to veto and the existing republicans within the senate and house ability to filibuster it has made it very difficult for changes to be made. To this date the republicans have filibustered more than 90 different proposals making it the most in history by any party in such a small period of time. The democrats desperately need a democratic president to make the changes they feel will help our country. Not all republicans claim to be on the same page as our current president although most follow suit when voting.

Here are a list of what are the major issues and stances from each candidate.

The Iraq War: McCain voted for the war and believes our country will reach a victorious level although very little progress has been shown. He is willing to let this war continue as long as it takes because he believes it is for our own security. Obama voted against the war believes we need to have mostly exited the country within an estimated 16 months. Since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 more than 4000 Americans have been killed, an estimated 55,000 insurgents killed, 50,000 to 100,000 Iraqi civilian casualties (up to 600,000 according to some sources), more than 2 million Iraqis displaced from their homes, and 800 billion tax payer dollars have been spent. The growth of estimated insurgents and attacks has increased by more than 1000% since the initial invasion of Iraq.

Healthcare McCain believes providing tax breaks to assist the cost of health care is the next step in insuring more US citizens in the security of healthcare. This will assist in helping the middle class get coverage but because the growing poor population pays very little in taxes already, they will not benefit from the tax breaks being offered. Obama believes more government intervention should be in place to provide everyone the ability to easily afford healthcare to ensure that anyone who wants healthcare will have it. The United States of America remains to be the only major industrial nation to not have Universal Health Care.

Taxes McCain stands with Bush in believing that an individual's income that exceeds $250,000 should pay a far lower percentage in tax than income under $250,000. The belief is that just because they make more they should not have to give more because they are only provided with the same benefits of someone making less. Obama believes that people should be taxed equally at any level of income. If Obama is to take office, the tax adjustment is expected to be enough money to pay for his universal healthcare plan. Did you know the richest people in the United States pay less of a percentage than you do in taxes?

There are many other issues supporting this election that you should research prior to supporting one candidate or another. These issues will greatly impact many lives including you and your families. Please do your country a favor by doing your research and voting!