You KNOW what I am talking about. This election. Thank the good Lord. We have been spoken too, urged, argued about and just plain been kicked around figuratively, by the media, and in some cases our countrymen. I am vehement that people need to vote, but, unlike well, pretty much a majority it seems, of my fellow Americans, I don't feel the need to say who I am voting for, and explain why, as a segue into why the listener should vote for (in this case, Obama). Oh GOD, if I wanted your opinion, I would surely have asked for it. All this unsolicited education about why Obama is the person to vote for... You know, I think people should remember when they hop up on their pulpits and espouse change, for change sake, that the change they receive may not be what they were thinking of.
When I think of a President, I think of someone who has the country's future FIRST in mind. Not Political aspirations, founded on a need to prove a point. I was undecided for most of this election. Seriously, I wish we could have had a better choice on both sides, but nevertheless, we have what we have, and we have to vote our conscience. The saying is, the office makes the man, not the man makes the office. When the decision has been made, and the man takes the office, that is when we learn what is what, and what the man is made of. Mr. Obama has lofty goals for our country, and it is very romantic, when you listen to him, how we will have change, how the country's economy will change to help the little guy, and how ANYTHING BUT GEORGE BUSH AND THE REPUBLICANS will be better. Well, perhaps that is true. Perhaps not. I am a pragmatist if nothing else. I will listen carefully, and dissect the history of the candidate, and see if he has indeed faced adversity- and how that adversity was handled.
Here's Mr. McCain's Bio/history:
The following is taken from :
http://www.biography.com/featured-biography/john-mccain/bio3.jsp
John McCain
aka John Sidney McCain III
(1936–)
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* Watch John McCain Videos
* » John McCain Photo Gallery
Quick Facts
* Born: August 29, 1936 (Panama Canal Zone)
* Lives in: Phoenix, AZ
* Zodiac Sign: Virgo
* Height: 5’7”(1.7m)
* Family: wife Cindy, 4 sons Douglas, Andrew, John IV, and James and 3 daughters Sidney, Meghan, and Bridget
* Parents: Admiral John Sydney McCain, Jr. (from Indiana) and Roberta (Wright) McCain (from Oklahoma)
* Religion: Episcopalian
* Education:
– Graduated: United States Naval Academy (1958)
– National War College (1974)
* Career: –U.S. Representative from 1983 to 1987
–U.S. Senator from 1987-present
* Government Committees:
– Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
– Chair, Committee on Indian Affairs, 1995-1997, 2005-2007
» more
Related Content
* Where McCain Stands on the Issues
* Discuss the Candidates
* Official John McCain Site
Related People
* Cindy McCain
* Barack Obama
* George W. Bush
* Bill Clinton
* Barry Goldwater
* Hillary Clinton
Related Works
* Books
* 1999 Faith of My Fathers
* 2002 Worth Fighting For
* 2005 Character Is Destiny: Inspiring Stories Every Young Person Should Know and Every Adult Should Remember
* 2007 Hard Call: Great Decisions and the Extraordinary People Who Made Them
John McCain
John McCain is the senior U.S. Senator from Arizona and the 2008 Republican presidential nominee.
John Sidney McCain III was born on August 29, 1936, at Coco Solo Naval Air Station in the Panama Canal Zone, the second of three children born to naval officer John S. McCain Jr. and his wife, Roberta. At the time of his birth, the McCain family was stationed in the Panama Canal Zone, under American control.
Both McCain´s father and paternal grandfather, John Sidney McCain, Sr., were four-star admirals and his father rose to command all the U.S. naval forces in the Pacific.
McCain spent his childhood and adolescent years moving between naval bases in America and abroad. He attended Episcopal high School, a private preparatory boarding school in Alexandria, Virginia, graduating in 1954.
Following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, McCain graduated (fifth from the bottom of his class) from the Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1958. He also graduated from flight school in 1960.
With the outbreak of the Vietnam War, McCain volunteered for combat duty and began flying carrier-based attack planes on low-altitude bombing runs against the North Vietnamese. He escaped serious injury on July 29, 1967, when his A-4 Skyhawk plane was accidentally shot by a missile on board the USS Forestal, causing explosions and fires that killed 134.
On October 26, 1967, during his 23rd air mission, McCain´s plane was shot down during a bombing run over the North Vietnamese capital of Hanoi. He broke both arms and one leg during the ensuing crash. McCain was moved to Hoa Loa prison, nicknamed the “Hanoi Hilton,” on December 9, 1969.
His captors soon learned he was the son of a high-ranking officer in the U.S. Navy and repeatedly offered him early release, but McCain refused, not wanting to violate the military code of conduct and knowing that the North Vietnamese would use his release as a powerful piece of propaganda.
McCain eventually spent five and a half years in various prison camps, three and a half of those in solitary confinement, and was repeatedly beaten and tortured before he was finally released, along with other American POWs, on March 14, 1973, less than two months after the Vietnam cease fire went into effect. McCain earned the Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart and Distinguished Flying Cross.
Though McCain had lost most of his physical strength and flexibility, he was determined to continue serving as a naval aviator. After a painful nine months of rehabilitation, he returned to flying duty, but it soon became clear that his injuries had permanently impaired his ability to advance in the Navy.
His introduction to politics came in 1976, when he was assigned as the Navy´s liaison to the U.S. Senate. In 1981, after marrying his second wife, Cindy Hensley, McCain retired from the Navy, and moved to Phoenix, Arizona. While working in public relations for his father-in-law´s beer distribution business, he began establishing connections in politics.
McCain was first elected to political office on November 2, 1982, easily winning a seat in the House of Representatives after his well-known war record helped overcome doubts about his “carpetbagger” status. He was re-elected in 1984.
Having adapted well to the largely conservative politics of his home state, McCain was a loyal supporter of the Reagan administration and numbered among a group of young “new Right.”
In 1986, after the retirement of the longtime Arizona senator and prominent Republican Barry Goldwater, McCain won election to the U.S. Senate. Both in the House and the Senate, McCain earned a reputation as a conservative politician who nonetheless was not afraid to question the ruling Republican orthodoxy. In 1983, for example, he called for the withdrawal of U.S. Marines from Lebanon, and he also publicly criticized the administration´s handling of the Iran-Contra affair.
From 1987 to 1989, McCain underwent a federal investigation as a member of the “Keating Five,” a group of senators who were accused of improperly intervening with federal regulators on behalf of Charles H. Keating Jr., a bank chairman whose Lincoln Savings & Loan Association eventually became one of the biggest failures in the savings and loan disasters of the late 1980s. He was eventually cleared of the charges, although investigators declared that he had exercised “poor judgment” by meeting with the regulators.
McCain weathered the scandal and won re-election to the Senate three times, each time with a solid majority. His reputation as a maverick politician with firm beliefs and a quick temper only increased, and many were impressed with his willingness to be extremely open with the public and the press. He has worked diligently in support of increased tobacco legislation and especially the reform of the campaign finance system, professing some more liberal views and generally proving to be more complex than merely a straight-ahead conservative.
In 1999, McCain published Faith of My Fathers, the story of his family´s military history and his own experiences as a POW. He also emerged as a solid challenger to the frontrunner, Governor George W. Bush of Texas, for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000. Many people from both political parties found his straight talk refreshing. In the New Hampshire primary, McCain won by a surprisingly wide margin, largely bolstered by independent voters and cross-over Democrats.
After a roller-coaster ride during the primaries--Bush won South Carolina, while McCain captured Michigan and Arizona--Bush emerged triumphant on “Super Tuesday” in early March 2000, winning New York and California, among a number of others. Though McCain won in most of the New England states, his large electoral deficit forced him to “suspend” his campaign indefinitely. On May 9, after holding out for two months, McCain formally endorsed Bush.
In August 2000, McCain was diagnosed with skin cancer lesions on his face and arm, which doctors determined were unrelated to a similar lesion which he had removed in 1993. He subsequently underwent surgery, during which all the cancerous tissue was successfully removed. McCain also underwent routine prostate surgery for an enlarged prostate in August of 2001.
McCain was back in the headlines in the spring of 2001, when the Senate debated and eventually passed, by a vote of 59-41, a broad overhaul of the campaign finance system. The bill was the fruit of McCain's six-year effort, with Democratic Senator Russell D. Feingold of Wisconsin to reform the system. Central to the McCain-Feingold bill was a controversial ban on the unrestricted contributions to political parties known as “soft money.” The new law was narrowly upheld by the Supreme Court in 2003.
McCain supported the Iraq War, but criticized The Pentagon several times, especially about low troop strength. At one point, McCain declared he had “no confidence” in the leadership of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. McCain supported the 2007 surge of more than 20,000 troops, which supporters say has increased security in Iraq.
McCain also publicly supported President Bush´s bid for re-election, even though he differed with Bush on several issues including torture, pork barrel spending, illegal immigration, a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage and global warming. He also defended the Vietnam War record of Bush´s opponent, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, which came under attack during the campaign.
With Bush limited to two terms, McCain officially entered the 2008 presidential race on April 25, 2007, during an announcement in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
McCain married Carol Shepp, a model originally from Philadelphia, on July 3, 1965. He adopted her two young children from a previous marriage (Doug and Andy Shepp) and they had a daughter (Sydney, b. 1966). The couple divorced in April 1980.
McCain met Cindy Lou Hensley, a teacher from Phoenix and daughter of a prosperous Arizona beer distributor, while she was on vacation in 1979 with her parents in Hawaii. He was still married at the time, but separated from his first wife. John and Cindy McCain were married May 17, 1980 in Phoenix. They have four children: Meghan (b. 1984), John IV (known as Jack, b. 1986), James (known as Jimmy, b. 1988), and Bridget (b. 1991 in Bangladesh, adopted by the McCains in 1993).
Here's Mr. Obama's Bio/History, taken from:
http://www.biography.com/featured-biography/barack-obama/bio3.jsp
Barack Obama
aka Barack Hussein Obama, Jr.
(1961–)
Video & Images
Click to watch Video
* Watch Barack Obama Videos
* » Barack Obama Photo Gallery
Related Content
* Test Your Obama Knowledge
* Where Obama Stands on the Issues
* Discuss the Candidates
* Official Barack Obama Site
Quick Facts
* Born: August 4, 1961 (Hawaii)
* Lives in: Chicago, Illinois
* Zodiac Sign: Leo
* Height: 6′ 1″ (1.87m)
* Family: Married wife Michelle in 1992, 2 daughters Malia and Sasha
* Parents: Barack Obama, Sr. (from Kenya) and Ann Dunham (from Kansas)
* Religion: United Church of Christ
* Drives a: Ford Escape hybrid, Chrysler 300C
* Education:
– Graduated: Columbia University (1983) - Major: Political Science
– Law Degree from Harvard (1991) - Major: J.D. - Magna Cum Laude
– Attended: Occidental College
* Career: U.S. Senator from Illinois sworn in January 4, 2005
* Government Committees:
– Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee
– Foreign Relations Committee
– Veterans Affairs Committee
– 2005 and 2006: served on the Environment and Public Works Committee
» more
Related People
* Sarah Palin
* Joe Biden
* Michelle Obama
* Hillary Clinton
* John McCain
* Bill Clinton
* George W. Bush
* Reverend Jeremiah Wright
Related Works
* Books
* 1995 Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance
* 2006 The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream
* 2006 It Takes a Nation: How Strangers Became Family in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina
Barack Obama
Barack Obama is the junior U.S. Senator from Illinois and the 2008 Democratic presidential nominee.
Barack Hussein Obama was born Aug. 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii. His father, Barack Obama, Sr., was born of Luo ethnicity in Nyanza Province, Kenya. He grew up herding goats with his own father, who was a domestic servant to the British. Although reared among Muslims, Obama, Sr., became an atheist at some point.
Obama’s mother, Ann Dunham, grew up in Wichita, Kansas. Her father worked on oil rigs during the Depression. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he signed up for service in World War II and marched across Europe in Patton’s army. Dunham’s mother went to work on a bomber assembly line. After the war, they studied on the G. I. Bill, bought a house through the Federal Housing Program, and moved to Hawaii.
Meantime, Barack’s father had won a scholarship that allowed him to leave Kenya pursue his dreams in Hawaii. At the time of his birth, Obama’s parents were students at the East–West Center of the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
Obama’s parents separated when he was two years old and later divorced. Obama’s father went to Harvard to pursue Ph. D. studies and then returned to Kenya.
His mother married Lolo Soetoro, another East–West Center student from Indonesia. In 1967, the family moved to Jakarta, where Obama’s half-sister Maya Soetoro–Ng was born. Obama attended schools in Jakarta, where classes were taught in the Indonesian language.
Four years later when Barack (commonly known throughout his early years as "Barry") was ten, he returned to Hawaii to live with his maternal grandparents, Madelyn and Stanley Dunham, and later his mother (who died of ovarian cancer in 1995).
He was enrolled in the fifth grade at the esteemed Punahou Academy, graduating with honors in 1979. He was only one of three black students at the school. This is where Obama first became conscious of racism and what it meant to be an African–American.
In his memoir, Obama described how he struggled to reconcile social perceptions of his multiracial heritage. He saw his biological father (who died in a 1982 car accident) only once (in 1971) after his parents divorced. And he admitted using alcohol, marijuana and cocaine during his teenage years.
After high school, Obama studied at Occidental College in Los Angeles for two years. He then transferred to Columbia University in New York, graduating in 1983 with a degree in political science.
After working at Business International Corporation (a company that provided international business information to corporate clients) and NYPIRG, Obama moved to Chicago in 1985. There, he worked as a community organizer with low-income residents in Chicago’s Roseland community and the Altgeld Gardens public housing development on the city’s South Side.
It was during this time that Obama, who said he "was not raised in a religious household," joined the Trinity United Church of Christ. He also visited relatives in Kenya, which included an emotional visit to the graves of his father and paternal grandfather.
Obama entered Harvard Law School in 1988. In February 1990, he was elected the first African–American editor of the Harvard Law Review. Obama graduated magna cum laude in 1991.
After law school, Obama returned to Chicago to practice as a civil rights lawyer, joining the firm of Miner, Barnhill & Galland. He also taught at the University of Chicago Law School. And he helped organize voter registration drives during Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign.
Obama published an autobiography in 1995 Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. And he won a Grammy for the audio version of the book.
Obama’s advocacy work led him to run for the Illinois State Senate as a Democrat. He was elected in 1996 from the south side neighborhood of Hyde Park.
During these years, Obama worked with both Democrats and Republicans in drafting legislation on ethics, expanded health care services and early childhood education programs for the poor. He also created a state earned-income tax credit for the working poor. And after a number of inmates on death row were found innocent, Obama worked with law enforcement officials to require the videotaping of interrogations and confessions in all capital cases.
In 2000, Obama made an unsuccessful Democratic primary run for the U. S. House of Representatives seat held by four-term incumbent candidate Bobby Rush.
Following the 9/11 attacks, Obama was an early opponent of President George W. Bush’s push to war with Iraq. Obama was still a state senator when he spoke against a resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq during a rally at Chicago’s Federal Plaza in October 2002.
"I am not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars," he said. "What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and other arm-chair, weekend warriors in this Administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne."
"He's a bad guy," Obama said, referring to Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. "The world, and the Iraqi people, would be better off without him. But I also know that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors, that the Iraqi economy is in shambles, that the Iraqi military a fraction of its former strength, and that in concert with the international community he can be contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history."
"I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a U. S. occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences," Obama continued. "I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda."
The war with Iraq began in 2003 and Obama decided to run for the U.S. Senate open seat vacated by Republican Peter Fitzgerald. In the 2004 Democratic primary, he won 52 percent of the vote, defeating multimillionaire businessman Blair Hull and Illinois Comptroller Daniel Hynes.
That summer, he was invited to deliver the keynote speech in support of John Kerry at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. Obama emphasized the importance of unity, and made veiled jabs at the Bush administration and the diversionary use of wedge issues.
"We worship an awesome God in the blue states, and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the red states," he said. "We coach Little League in the blue states, and yes, we've got some gay friends in the red states. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq, and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the Stars and Stripes, all of us defending the United States of America."
After the convention, Obama returned to his U.S. Senate bid in Illinois. His opponent in the general election was suppose to be Republican primary winner Jack Ryan, a wealthy former investment banker. However, Ryan withdrew from the race in June 2004, following public disclosure of unsubstantiated sexual allegations by Ryan's ex wife, actress Jeri Ryan.
In August 2004, diplomat and former presidential candidate Alan Keyes, who was also an African American, accepted the Republican nomination to replace Ryan. In three televised debates, Obama and Keyes expressed opposing views on stem cell research, abortion, gun control, school vouchers and tax cuts.
In the November 2004 general election, Obama received 70% of the vote to Keyes's 27%, the largest electoral victory in Illinois history. Obama became only the third African American elected to the U.S. Senate since Reconstruction.
Sworn into office January 4, 2005, Obama partnered with Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana on a bill that expanded efforts to destroy weapons of mass destruction in Eastern Europe and Russia. Then with Republican Sen. Tom Corburn of Oklahoma, he created a website that tracks all federal spending.
Obama was also the first to raise the threat of avian flu on the Senate floor, spoke out for victims of Hurricane Katrina, pushed for alternative energy development and championed improved veterans´ benefits. He also worked with Democrat Russ Feingold of Wisconsin to eliminate gifts of travel on corporate jets by lobbyists to members of Congress.
His second book, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, was published in October 2006.
In February 2007, Obama made headlines when he announced his candidacy for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. He was locked in a tight battle with former first lady and current U.S. Senator from New York, Hillary Rodham Clinton until he became the presumptive nominee on June 3, 2008.
Obama met his wife, Michelle, in 1988 when he was a summer associate at the Chicago law firm of Sidley & Austin. They were married in October 1992 and live in Kenwood on Chicago's South Side with their daughters, Malia (born 1998) and Sasha (born 2001).
Well, I hope you have read all of the above- if you are reading this, I guess you have! That's it folks, the candidates track records. Vote with your conscience, and above all, do not apologize, or minimize your feelings in this election. People died so that we could chose our leaders, and we owe it to our country to put our own small efforts into ensuring it's bright future.
