So the candidates are basically Obama vs. McCain. I am going to look at each issue and where they stand on it and how I feel about said issue and who I think has the better position. I was just going to do this in a word doc to see who to vote for but hey, why not just post it since I'm writing it anyways. Abortion McCain - Against abortion except in special cases like rape or to protect the mother from dying Obama - Supports abortion rights I'm not too keen on rights being taken away so if a woman chooses to get an abortion she should be allowed to do so. Obama - 1 McCain - 0 Economic Stimulus McCain - corporate tax cut and research and development deductions/credit Obama - $250 tax cut to workers, temporary $250 bonus on social security checks, additional $250 to each if the economy gets worse, and pump $75 billion into the economy through the tax cuts with another $45 billion in reserve. I can see how McCain's plan could possibly work if the corporations lower the cost of their goods as a result of this tax cut and deductions. If they don't then its useless. Of course most people I've talked to put the money they were given from the economic stimulus package in the bank instead of using it to stimulate the economy by buying stuff. And a lot of people said they did it just because they hate Bush. Well, those people are ****ing idiots because BUYING STUFF MAKES THE ECONOMY BETTER, THE GOVERNMENT DOESN'T CONTROL IT. Hell I didn't get any of that money because I'm a dependant of my parents still and I bought a $400 airsoft gun, and it's awesome. As for Obama, if the first tax cut makes the economy worse wouldn't making the same cut again make it even worse? Anyways, I propose a flat tax. Then nobody can ***** about how hard tax day is and nobody can ***** about one of the classes getting screwed because it would be equal. No points given here because they both have dumb ideas. Obama - 1 McCain - 0 Education McCain - Continue No Child Left Behind, more charter schools and vouchers, reward good teachers and find other lines of work for bad teachers Obama - Reform No Child Left Behind, get parents to have a greater role in fostering their child's education (yeah good luck with that one, a bad parent is a bad parent), reward good teachers, make math and science a priority. Maybe it needs to be reformed, maybe it doesn't. Anyways, thats Congress' job and I don't see Obama doing anything about it now. Obama can't except to get parents to do more for their children just because he asks them to. "You have to get your children to want to learn more" "OHHHH see we had no idea before you told us Obama..." And I think all subjects should be emphasized. Not everyone wants to be in a science or math related career. Obama - 1 McCain - 1 Energy McCain - Use nuclear and advanced technologies to lower carbon emissions and make a reasonable cap on carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions for industry. Obama - Basically the same thing except no talk about nuclear power. Supports biofuels. I'm going to give it to both of them on this one. Both have good ideas. Obama - 2 McCain - 2 Environment McCain - Introduced Climate Stewardship and Innovation Act of 2007 - designed to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions by using alternative energy sources Obama - Would do that Since McCain has actually done something about it I'm going to give him the point here. Both have good ideas but McCain is the one whose gotten something done. Also, it's congress that makes laws, not the president. So, as congressmen they can try and do all this stuff they each propose. Obama - 2 McCain - 3 Free Trade McCain - The biggest supporter of free trade Obama - reinvest in communities burdened by free trade, amend NAFTA Free trade is a good thing for free-market societies like the US Obama - 2 McCain - 4 Guns McCain - Against extension of assault weapons ban, sponsored legislation requiring background checks at gun shows Obama - supports extension of assault weapons ban, supports ban on concealed weapons except for retired police and military, supports limiting gun sales to one per month Do you know who needs assault weapons? Nobody who isn't police or military. Obama gets this one. Obama - 3 McCain - 4 Healthcare McCain - opposes federally mandated universal coverage, supports health care tax dividends for low-income families, expand community health centers, encourage small businesses to band together to negotiate lower rates Obama - create national healthcare program for those not covered by employers, would require employers who don't provide coverage to give money to the national healthcare program, required coverage for all children, would pay for it by eliminating the Bush tax cuts to those making over $250,000. While 84% of Americans already have healthcare, giving those last 16% healthcare would be nice. Obama - 4 McCain - 4 Homeland Security McCain - Rebuild war-torn lands and increase peaceful development in countries to stop wars from breaking out, 20,000 man Army Adviser Corps to work with friendly militaries abroad, increase number of personnel in information operations, Special Forces, civil affairs, military policing, military intelligence, and other areas, expand Army and Marines, close prison at Guantanamo. Obama - Create senior position to manage domestic intelligence collection, grant program to support thousands of state and local intelligence analysts, close prison at Guantanamo. McCain's plan sounds like a great idea all around. Obama - 4 McCain - 5 Housing McCain - Government bailout should be last resort Obama - $10 billion fund to prevent foreclosures, tax credit to 10 million middle class families struggling with mortgages Don't buy big ass houses that you can't afford on credit. Those idiots caused the housing crises. Bailing them out will not teach them the lesson that needs to be taught. It's called fiscal responsibility. Obama - 4 McCain - 6 Immigration is the same for both of them so I'll skip that. 0 points given, they both want to build that stupid fence. Iran McCain - Military action an option but would consult congress beforehand Obama - Diplomacy within first year, leave military option on the table These are too similar so I'll give them no points because neither of them voted on the Senate resolution to declare the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization. Thats an important vote and they should have been there to vote yes. Iraq McCain - Keep troops there and finish the job Obama - Wants to get troops out of Iraq as soon as he can Is it because it's called a war that so many people are against it? How about we call it police action to stop the country from becoming hell on earth? Would that be better? US leaves and the country will turn to **** just like Afghanistan turned to **** after the US pulled out its support in 1992. Obama - 4 McCain - 7 Same-Sex Marriage McCain - Opposes same-sex marriage, supports legal benefits for same-sex partners, says its up to the states Obama - Opposes same-sex marriage, supports civil unions I support same-sex marriage. Both of these candidates suck on this issue. No points. Social Security McCain - Personal savings accounts for social security Obama - Social security only taxes up to $97,500 of someone's income. Wants to increase that cap. Social security is a crutch for those who are not fiscally responsible. My uncle and aunt were DC public school teachers. Guess what they've been doing with retirement? Traveling all over the world. And they have a house in Maine, a house in Arizona, and a house in Virgina. It's called being fiscally responsible. Chile has a private system that works great. Obama - 4 McCain - 8 Stem Cells McCain - Supports expansion of federally funded stem cell research Obama - Supports expansion of federally funded stem cell research Point for both. Good idea. Obama - 5 McCain - 9 Taxes McCain - Voted against Bush's fax cuts but supports extending tax cuts through 2010. Has said two opposite things on "Fair Tax" Obama - Opposed to extending tax cuts through 2010. Re-examine tax benefits for top 1% Neither have clear ideas. Especially McCain who is inconsistent here. So there we have it, Obama with 5 and McCain with 9.
well your score depends on it, if you count all the subjects as equally important, than i guess mccain wins indeed. And on education, off subject, i think that the no child left behind system doesnt need to get to extreme, cause otherwise talented children will get neglected
Thank you for this analysis, I have not that much opportunity (understand "I am too lazy") to find out who really think what about their possible responsabilities, and I like this summary. I just disagree regarding the same-sex marriages, but this is another topic. Well, my only contribution to this topic is unfortunately just a question, the following: Obama will not win, because he is black, and he does not belong to the party (side) who used to support the war equipment industry, which is I understood the real government (understand "those who make the decisions") in the US. Please could you tell me your opinion about this (or anybody with enough arguments and involvement)? I like the fact that competitors may have similar points of view regarding some specific problems: in my (former) country, it's always the same sh#t with presidentials: if one of the candidate thinks something, the other always think the opposite, just because it's more important to tell "look, I am different, really" than to possibly be right. Bl##dy idi#ts.
Well, every poll I've seen has shown the economy to be the top priority for Americans with the war in Iraq being second or third and terrorism being even lower. Americans as a whole tend to have a pretty short attention span. Over the past year it seems as though people have become less interested in whether or not the US pulls out of Iraq. Part of this seems to come from the shift in news coverage away from Iraq and towards the presidential election. Also, many people see the economy as something that the government is supposed to fix and feel that the "bad" US economy (note that GDP, the standard measurement of economic power, has been going up so I don't see the US economy as being bad) is the fault of the US government. However, these people only believe this because that is what the news people have told them. The invisible hand of the free market is not the government, it is public perception of the economy. The government has very little to do with the economy. Any failings in the economy are a result of the utter incompetence of many Americans when it comes to fiscal responsibility. People go into credit card debt all the time and think that the government should bail them out for being such a complete ****ing idiot and spending money they don't even have. Any bad perception in the US economy is because of the people, not the government. That being said, people will probably vote for the person who they think can do the most good for the most important issue(s) to them. The economy is the biggest issue for most people and Obama has a slight edge in the polls for who people think will do a better job at fixing the economy. Whoever is elected they will be mighty unhappy when they realize that the president can't do all that much to help stimulate the economy. Especially when people don't spend the ****ing money that was given to them by the government so that they could buy stuff which would stimulate the economy.YES, when you buy **** that money goes to OTHER PEOPLE. Then they can buy **** with that money and it goes to OTHER PEOPLE TOO. And that is how the economy works. Of course you can't win a presidential election if you tell the people that the government has little to do with the economy and can't really help that much. So to answer your question it could go either way depending on what issue people think is the most important and who they think will do the most to fix that issue come election day.
NIce post and summary. I really appreciate you doing this as I am too lazy to go research these issue myself. However i disagree with you on several points. Energy: Personally I am against biofuels as they make people feel good about driving there cars, and has no effect on the environment. In fact biofuels are worse for the environment as they not only raise the price of corn, causing starvation in third world countries. Also it makes people think there are doing something for the environment. Overall I think this point should only go to McCain. Iran: IMO Iran should not be considered a terrorist organization. yes they are run by a ruthless dictator, however I don't think that should be considered a terrorist organization other than that great thread
For the biofuels, I was giving Obama the benefit of the doubt since there are biofuels that do not use food products like corn. If Obama pushes for the ones based on food products then yes, he should not get that point. And it's not Iran as a whole that is being labeled a terrorist organization, it's just the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. They are responsible for fueling a lot of the violence in Iraq especially the recent events around Basra and they were the ones who created and still finance Hezbollah in Lebanon.
You know, I really like this post Paragon. It's a great breakdown, and very fair. Unfortunately, the damn electoral makes this whole breakdown moot. I voted for Obama in the primary, when it meant something, but I'm not even planning to vote in the normal.
I'm the other way around. I don't vote in the primaries became I'm registered independent. I think the super-delegates have too much power (especially on the democrats side of the primaries this time around). So once the candidates are picked for each party I weigh each issue and decide who has more issues that I agree with. But yes, the electoral system does make it pointless especially since my state will undoubtedly cast their electoral votes for Obama so it won't matter if I do vote for McCain. So me voting is more because of the symbolism behind the act of voting.
i have an off-topic question: can people vote in the pre-election for both a rpublican and a democratic nominee, or just one?
@Ijffdrie: We can only vote for a nominee if we are a member of their party, and we can only be members of one party. Those who are registered in parties other than Republican or Democrat can (I am not sure about Independent) vote for their third party candidate, though such candidates have a rather slim chance of winning. I considered registering as independent, but I prefer having some say in the candidate for one of the two parties who are in control at the moment. The two party system gets on my nerves, because I don't really agree with either party. If a third party stands a chance of winning, I would definitely be biased towards voting for them, since taking office away from the Dems and Reps would open the door for other parties to make it into office later. I will probably vote for Obama, but I am not going to make the decision lightly. I will be thoroughly reviewing the candidates' positions to determine who best agrees with my positions before I finalize my decision. Now that the primaries are over, I can focus my attention more on what the candidates will actually do. As for the electoral college creating issues where some people's votes are almost ignored, I agree that it is a problem. I haven't thought a great deal about the ramifications of converting to direct election, but I agree more with direct election on principle. If the electoral college system were completely eliminated, annoying practices such as Gerrymandering would be much less common, but it could also weaken the voting power of smaller states or districts. Blindly jumping into a new system because the old one doesn't work is not a wise idea. I think that careful consideration should be made before the system is changed.
I agree. The electoral college is indeed outdated. The electoral college was created back in the 1700s because most people did not have access to information about the candidates back then, which meant it was rather dangerous to rely on popular vote, as it was likely a completely ineffective leader could be chosen. The electoral college was made up of educated, well informed men who could be trusted to make wise decisions. On the other hand, today, we have news broadcasts, interviews, newspapers, Internet, etc. etc. to inform us about the candidates. Most of the voters (those who care, anyway) can be trusted to make informed, if not wise, choices. So the electoral college more or less loses its meaning as the informed representatives of a generally ignorant public. Even Ben Franklin said it wasn't a perfect system, just what worked best at the time.
