Obama? No thanks! – part one

While I don’t know yet who I WILL vote for in the upcoming election cycle, I do know one person I won’t vote for…

Barack Obama.

Many of you were kind enough to point out his views to me when I was internet-inept-enough to miss them on his website, and I thank you (It turns out the page I found at first is an “intro” page and when the little video was done I didn’t wait long enough for it to switch to the main page).  I’ve been looking over his views and they’ve convinced me that he’s nothing more than an inexperienced newcomer with the same tired-but-repackaged ideas that have never worked.  Really.  I’ll give you some examples… (all of these come from Obama’s own “Blueprint” – see it here).

• Universal health care – Obama wants it and has a “plan” to implement it within his first term in office.  The problem is this – IT NEVER WORKS, at least not well.  Every country that has adopted this approach has had endless trouble with U.C.  Whether it’s the government’s tendency to cut corners or deny legitimate claims in order to cut costs, or the waiting lines that you have to endure in order to get life-saving surgery.  It just doesn’t work.  No thanks!
• Strengthening of Labor Unions – Don’t get me wrong, unions have their place – or at the very least HAD their place in the past.  Employees should NOT be at the mercy of harsh or unfair employers.  I agree.  But Unions today, for the most part, (yes, I know, that’s a very broad generalization) have become Political Action Committees under another name.  They lobby and influence the politicians as much or more than any PAC (which Obama claims to want to do away with, by the way) with their sheer numbers and finances.  It seems like he’s kinda’ speaking out of both sides of his mouth.  Why would you want to do away with PACs and NOT at least weaken the influence of Labor Unions on the political process?  Strengthen unions?  No thanks!
• Teacher raises without CLEAR criteria- I believe in teachers.  I honestly do.  For many years I’ve felt that it’s shameful that a professional athlete can make millions per year while the people who educate our children make pennies in comparison.  Teachers DO need better income, no problem there.  But Obama’s plan is ambiguous as to how those raises would be determined.  His plan states that it would be left up to local school boards and districts to develop plans for government-funded pay increases, but doesn’t say by what criteria those raises would be given.  The most it says is “to those who excel in the classroom.”  What does that mean?  Yes, let’s give teachers raises, but make sure they are WORTH the raise first.  There needs to be some sort of tangible evaluation and standard that teachers have to meet before they get a raise (test scores increased by a certain percent… or something).  Raises for teachers without clear criteria?  No thanks!
• Support of abortion rights – I’m not a one-issue voter, no matter what the issue.  In other words, depending on the circumstances and state of our Union, if I agreed with Obama on everthing but abortion, I might still vote for him.  But coupled with everything else he stands for, the abortion card is just another in the deck that is stacked away from my support of Obama.  He plainly believes that abortion is a “right” of a woman while I believe it is murder of a human being.  Support abortion rights?  No thanks!

 More to come…