Abraham Lincoln is my Favorite President

I have a countdown clock on my computer that says "56 days". In 56 days those of us who are willing and allowed will cast our votes in the presidential election. So far I've split my voting age in two very different locales -- ultra conservative, 5 electoral votes Utah; and fairly liberal, 55 electoral votes California. In either place it's hard to believe that my vote can really make a difference. Any rational observer knows how each of those electorates will go. But, although a single vote never matters, every single vote does.

In April 2000 I got the right to vote. In November that year I voted for Al Gore and Joe Lieberman. I watched the ensuing debacle through the TV -- as much of an information junky, CNN-aholic then as I am now. In 2004, while attending a convention for an engineering honor society as the Utah chapter president and delegate, I watched John Kerry and George Bush debate on TV in a hotel room with 50 other bright engineering students from around the country. It was an interesting time for me -- it seemed like everything was changing. I broke up with my girlfriend of 3 years, the software I had poured a summer's worth of energy into was being deployed to 40+ restaurants, the Red Sox won the World Series, and the country that was polling strongly for change -- for Kerry -- suddenly decided on "four more years" of Bush. Again I was hooked to the TV.

Amongst all the information, misinformation, disinformation, and plain old noise that flowed through 24-hour live cable news channels during those times, I remember one constant: John McCain. John McCain slaughtered Bush in some early primaries, and should have been the Republicans' nominee. Except that he failed to defend himself against the awful tactics of Bush and Rove when they insinuated -- and somehow convinced Republican voters in South Carolina and other states whose primaries followed -- that McCain had fathered an illegitimate child with a black woman. An outright lie, obviously, but apparently a picture of McCain with his Bangladeshi adopted daughter Bridget was enough to scare voters into believing that Bush exemplified their Christian values better than McCain. Like I said, McCain should have been the nominee. Gore should have been the president. Bush should have gone back to Texas. And in 2001, McCain should have become a Democrat; he seriously considered it.

I remember in 2004, McCain was flirting with the left again. This time with his friend John Kerry. There was talk that he would be Kerry's runningmate. But due to the apparently now-confirmed rumors that McCain wanted to bid for the Republican nomination again in 2008, he reportedly turned down the offer.

If you've read this far, you probably think I support McCain for president. But I have to tell you, as much as I wanted him to beat Bush in 2000, I never wanted him to be president or vice president. And that's more true today than ever. Too little, too late, too old. I think he has sold out what little credibility he had as a "maverick". It's not just an Obama campaign talking point, it's a fact that McCain has spent the past 8 years in the Senate voting with George Bush 95% of the time. That's piss-poor judgment in my book. He stands opposed to my beliefs and positions on so many important issues for this election. And on a personal moral basis, I think he is reprehensible. He struggled through school, not because he was slower than the other kids, but because he was a bully and all around ass hole; he graduated in the bottom 0.5% of his class; he was a "hotdog" pilot -- and a bad one at that. Yes, at no fault of his own he was captured by the enemy and tortured as a POW -- his perserverance and survivorship are inspirational, and his dedication to public service thereafter is admirable. But while he was gone, his wife Carol was crippled in a car accident. When he returned a celebrity, what did he do? He hooked up with a rich, blonde heiress to a Beer distribution fortune -- a woman 18 years younger than him... in a bar... while still married. He divorced his disabled wife -- a woman who mothered his 3 children; a woman who waited years in agony while he was imprisoned across the world; a woman who endured her own adversity and needed him more than ever when he returned.

I could go on and on, but it's not just that I don't support John McCain; I wholeheartedly support Barack Obama. I think a lot of people are nervous about electing someone with so little experience, but I maintain that it's exactly what we need. The conservatives are trying to tell me that they'll effect change -- but they don't get it. For one thing, "change" -- the word, the definition, the spirit -- directly contradicts "conservative" -- the word, the definition, the spirit. They don't want change, they want to tap into all the excitement around impending change. The Republicans' change is like Microsoft's Zune -- they're copycats and they're getting it all wrong anyway.

Change isn't easy to make happen. I think that the ingredients for the kinds of change I want are summed up in Obama and what he represents. As a Washington outsider and Democrat, Obama is better equipped to change the course of our country than anyone I can dream up. Everything about him is different than the status quo -- his heritage, his upbringing, his background, his career, his beliefs. And yet he is not radical. He is not way out in left field. He is practical and center. He's an intelligent pragmatitist. He's calm and consistent. He's a moderate, like me. He's smart and educated and demonstrates the ability for intelligible, deep thought. He's an inspirational orator and writer who knows how to express that thought. He's a good communicator. And he's in line with me on almost every issue.

Anyway, I feel very strongly about this election. As usual, I'm hooked to the TV and internet. I look at the polls in each state almost every day. I read the comment threads on blogs and watch almost every political show I can -- even Fox News. I feel pretty confident that Obama will win this election since everything is trending in that direction. But if there's one thing I've learned in both presidential elections I've participated in, it's that anything can happen.

56 more days.

Fact: Barack Obama is a lawyer, Illinois state legislator, and 2 year member of congress.

Fact: Abraham Lincoln was a lawyer, Illinois state legislator, and 2 year member of congress; and then the leader of one of the most important periods of change in US history.