Obama, with a background of service to community and country, has proven to be an inspiration to millions of people across all demographics. He has conducted himself with ability, honor, and dignity, but most of all has offered clearly workable plans to rebuild America’s economy and military. He has shown qualities of leadership that can mend global fences and re-instill America’s honor around the world. His plans and programs are rooted in realistic assessments and objectives, and he has presented them with cautionary words that “restoring America” will take time, money, and will not happen overnight.

Obama has inspired millions of young people to register and vote, energizing the political playing field across America in a way that has not been seen since the Kennedy era and the time of Martin Luther King Jr. And like the late Martin Luther King, Obama has a dream for America.

Obama is reaching across traditional party lines and into the best of business and industry to accrue the best possible resources for the presidency, and has demonstrated the ability and willingness to work with those “bests” regardless of party affiliation.

Unfortunately, John McCain, despite his stellar service to country and his political experience, despite his self-prescribed “maverick” label, has proven to be too closely aligned to the “status quo” and Bush policies, a more compelling reason to oppose him than age and health issues.

His choice of vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin remains questionable at best: Palin’s “pitt bull” lowest common denominator attitude, “joe-sixpack” mentality and fundamentalist views are offensive to millions of voters and to women in particular, and her ability to conduct coherent political discussions and interviews is at best appalling for any candidate seeking one of the most powerful positions in America. Her apparent willingness to take on anybody at any time for any reason is frightening at best, since she completely bypasses diplomacy and negotiation and has implied she would go straight to war. Given McCain’s age, health and the potential stress impact of the presidency, the possibility of a Palin presidency does exist, and that is too frightening to contemplate.

The 2008 presidential election is being watched worldwide; this Guardian statement sums up the world view:

Not since the Kennedy era has such a contest resonated so potently with so many people in America and beyond, including in this country. But the circumstances of this year’s contest, the character of the protagonists and the immediacy of the internet age combine to mean that the 2008 election is likely to make a defining statement about America for this global generation that may eclipse even the impact of the contest of 1960. ~~ The Guardian UK

Here are some of the Obama endorsements from across America

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch called Obama’s opponent, John McCain, “the incredible shrinking man” who had made a horrific pick for his running mate.

Mr. Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, has emerged as the only truly transformative candidate in the race. In the crucible that is a presidential campaign, his intellect, his temperament and equanimity under pressure consistently have been impressive. He has surrounded himself with smart, capable advisers who have helped him refine thorough, nuanced policy positions … In a word, Mr. Obama has been presidential … .Meanwhile, Mr. McCain, the senior senator from Arizona, became the incredible shrinking man. He shrank from his principled stands in favor of a humane immigration policy. He shrank from his universal condemnation of torture and his condemnation of the politics of smear.

The Tennessean

Though Tennessee projected vote remains red, The Tennessean has endorsed Obama.

Obama, in the newspaper’s view, would bring a refreshing vitality to the White House. He has articulated an approach that would give the nation its best chance for change after the poor policies of the Bush administration for the last eight years. America needs new leadership, and Obama, the Democratic nominee, stands out as the best choice to be that leader … Obama represents a rare quality of hope in a time when hope seems to be in short supply among many Americans.

Dayton Daily News

Sen. McCain’s campaign has been as disappointing as his move toward party orthodoxy. More than his opponent, he has run a relentless stream of commercials that have been discredited by nonpartisan fact-checkers … His selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate was stunning. She is shockingly lacking in presidential qualifications.

Sacramento Bee

In this election, Americans are picking a future, not a past. That makes Barack Obama the better choice for president of the United States … By electing Obama, voters will make a clear break from the policies of the past eight years.

Wisconsin State Journal

America is at a pivotal point in its history — a difficult time that demands talented leadership to renew our nation’s spirit and pull us together to meet the incredible challenges ahead. The right leader for the time is Barack Obama … Far more than his opponent, Obama represents a new direction. He has shown he can inspire and lead people to action. And his relatively short time in corrupt, self-absorbed, terribly-failed Washington, D.C., may actually be a key strength. Obama is not stuck in the status quo of the Capitol crowd or its long-failed Congress. .. Obama doesn’t just give pretty speeches. He speaks to people’s best instincts, encouraging them to shine.

The Blade (Toledo)

As the nation wavers precariously at the precipice of economic ruin, American voters must decide who has the knowledge, steadiness, judgment, and inspirational qualities to lead us effectively out of that morass, for the next four years and beyond … without exaggeration, the country faces a transformational election on Nov. 4, not unlike that of 1932, which prefaced Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal and a long slog out of the Great Depresssion … We believe the person best equipped by temperament and intellect to firmly grasp the reins of government and guide it safely forward in these uncertain times is Barack Obama … Like another member of Congress from Illinois, Abraham Lincoln, Senator Obama initially rose to prominence on the strength of soaring oratory. Over the past 18 months of the grueling campaign, his background has been thoroughly inspected and dissected by the press and a political opposition dedicated to keeping him from the White House.

Colin Powell

In what is the most eloquent endorsement of Obama whom he says has “met the standard of being president”, Colin Powell gives the reasons behind his endorsement:

Click here to view the embedded video.

In this momumental election the time has come to indeed choose hope over fear. We suggest that means casting your vote for Barack Obama.

1. Put soldiers in schools as teachers without requiring certification and Desert Storm was about protecting the oil.
2. Americans are innocent victims of greed and excess on Wall Street and as well as Washington, D.C.
3. Palin is a role model to women.
4. McCain rallies harbor few fringe peoples.

Here are McCain’s statements:

1. McCain’s solutions to education and why we had Desert Storm.

During the third debate, when asked about the state of education in the US, McCain had this, among other things, to say:

McCain: “We need to encourage programs such as Teach for America and Troops to Teachers where people, after having served in the military, can go right to teaching and not have to take these examinations or have the certification that  are are required in many states.”

My Reaction (Incredulous) : Returning soldiers should go straight into teaching?

Soldiers coming back from the war are all, every one of them, suffering from PTSD, according to local psychologists in Montgomery County.  Here, at the home of Fort Campbell army base, agencies that deal with child abuse issues are spending a lot, if not most, of their time with military families.  Soldiers are gone so long from their growing families that they come back out of touch with their children and how to react and interact with them.

Many soldiers came back from the first deployment with sex addictions that befuddled local psychologist, Mary Coe.  News of rape within the armed forces continues to escalate at an alarming rate.  Now McCain suggests that we should put these soldiers in a room with our young, attractive, hormonal young women and men? Or the youngest of our children?

No certification required of soldiers to teach our children?  Well then, what are they going to teach, and how?  Am I jumping off a limb to say that soldiers know how to be good soldiers, how to obey orders without question?  Will classrooms be organized in a military atmosphere, where you listen when told to do so and speak only when spoken to?  Where the teacher’s job is to break down the students and rebuild them as one unit?  People I know, with kids and without, will tell me this is a great idea.  Teach kids how to respect, obey, and have discipline.  To force feed information without question? Without critical thinking and questioning? That works fine if you’re not trying to work with kids who love to learn, who are creative and who can find and express their own personalities.  And the kids who don’t fit in?  How does the military deal with that?  A group is only as strong as its weakest person.

Meticulously programmed Robby the Robot (Forbidden Planet/1956)

Personally, I can’t imagine that making kids into bigger better robots than they are now is the best thing for them or our future.  Or that making them hate school more than many do now is a solution.

No Child Left Behind is teaching kids to memorize data for tests, but we can and should do so much better than that, move beyond that.  We can make kids really hate learning and resist school, essentially pulling them to a place where their choice for the future is narrowed down to the military.

Or, worse yet, it will produce kids who love the discipline so much that they’ll be ready to choose the military as their future.  These kids will be so dedicated that they would turn in even their parents as traitors. Ok, let’s just say there’s something to that idea.  Why does McCain want or need to make larger armies?

McCain: (from the 3rd debate script)

Kuwait

“He (Obama) voted against the first Gulf War. He voted against it and, obviously, we had to take Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait or it would’ve threatened the Middle Eastern world supply.

He said (the war) threatened world supply, not oppressed people.  Kuwait sits on 10 percent of the world oil reserves, so fighting the terrorist Saddam was about protecting our source of oil and now our largest trading partner. This fact has been confirmed to me by a Vet of that and two other wars.

McCain needs armies to conquer oil-rich countries.  Let the Christian extremists believe that Muslims are evil and tell the rest of us that we are defending ourselves against terror.  What happened to the “spreading Democracy” thing?  We bought that for awhile.  Election time arrives: bring terror back into the picture.

If we keep using oil, we burn up the planet, even if we could justify our barbaric invasion into Iraq and Iran for oil.

2.  The Maverick has experience in an economic collapse.

McCain: “Americans are hurting right now, and they’re angry. They’re hurting, and they’re angry. They’re innocent victims of greed and excess on Wall Street and as well as Washington, D.C. And they’re angry, and they have every reason to be angry.”

My Reaction: Both Democrats and Republicans can be blamed for the current economic crisis.  But we should consider who has more “experience” in the world of high finance fraud.  When McCain says American’s are angry, does he know what it is like to lose your life’s savings and your future well-being?

From Wikipedia

“Lincoln Savings and Loan collapsed in 1989, at a cost of over $3 billion to the federal government. Some 23,000 Lincoln bondholders were defrauded and many elderly investors lost their life savings. The accompanying slowdown in the finance industry and the real estate market may have been a contributing cause of the 1990-1991 economic recession.

“Charles H. Keating, Jr., chairman of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association made substantial political contributions to 5 senators, Alan Cranston (D-CA), Dennis DeConcini (D-AZ), John Glenn (D-OH),John McCain (R-AZ), and Donald W. Riegle (D-MI), totalling $1.3 million. Keating said, “One question …had to do with whether my financial support in any way influenced several political figures to take up my cause. I want to say in the most forceful way I can: I certainly hope so.”

“After a lengthy investigation, the Senate Ethics Committee determined in 1991 that Alan Cranston, Dennis DeConcini, and Donald Riegle had substantially and improperly interfered with the FHLBB in its investigation of Lincoln Savings, with Cranston receiving a formal reprimand. Senators John Glenn and John McCain were cleared of having acted improperly but were criticized for having exercised “poor judgment.”

McCain admitted that was the worst mistake in his life. Thank goodness that hand slap worked; now the Maverick is running for president and I can’t image him being bought out by private interests. (sarcasm, Miss Betty, sarcasm)

So far I see a man with big bucks in his pocket and his hands in the poop when the last recession (so similar to this one!) hit.

3. Palin is a role model to women (in men’s fantasies).

McCain (From the third debate): “Well, Americans have gotten to know Sarah Palin. They know that she’s a role model to women and others — and reformers all over America. She’s a reformer”.

My Reaction: She’s a role model alright. We don’t want a Hillary running things because she stands on her own integrity. Hillary doesn’t support a man because he’s a man. We want a woman who agrees with and defends the man. Palin can take it and turn around and defend it. That’s a role model in the man’s sexual fantasy.

Palin’s a reformer alright. In a YouTube video she greets the Alaskan Independence Party, a group that wants Alaska to secede from the Union.

From their website:

Q: What is the Alaskan Independence Party?

A: An Alaskan political party whose members advocate a range of solutions to the conflicts between federal and local authority; from advocacy for state’s rights, through a return to territorial status, all the way to complete independence and nationhood status for Alaska.

4. Why the negative campaigning, McCain?

So far, I see a man with big bucks in his pocket and his hands in the poop when the last recession (so similar to this one!) hit. And a woman who holds down the victim while developers rape the land; later she and Joe Six Pack threw around their power by shooting down protected wolves from a helicopter. Oh, she’s a role model alright. She can take it and turn around and defend it. A man’s fantasy role model. She even charges rape victims for their medical examination (that is a fact).

How are you going to keep us from knowing about this stuff, McCain?

The best thing for you to do, McCain, is keep us from looking at you, any way that you can. You better find things wrong with your opponent and pounce on it. Even if it’s a complete lie, just say it over and over until people believe it. Keep your opponent busy clearing himself of all the crap you are saying. Remember, it doesn’t have to be true, you just need to say it a lot, and get people scared.

Say something like 9/11 and get people scared about that again. Then make-up doubts about Obama. People will make the connection. Terror = scared = Obama.

The first lie I saw was “the no hand over the heart” affair, in which Obama was accused of not crossing his heart while saying the Pledge of Allegiance.The truth to that image is that he was listening to the National Anthem. That picture of Obama not crossing his heart hangs at our local Republican headquarters today; they’re not keeping up with the rest of the world and perpetuating a blatant lie.

Then there was the no-pin problem, when Obama did not wear an American flag lapel pin. Obama rhymes with Osama. What more proof do we need that he himself is a terrorist? Obama is a Muslim. A co-worker said that to me recently. Or suggested he has a Muslim background. Geez, girl. That was so last spring. Catch up. That’s been disproved and the party has moved on to bigger, better things. Recently I saw a short movie with out-of-context slides of Muslim terrorists. Lots of blood and guts too. IS THAT WHAT WE WANT? (vote McCain)

I’ve been doing a little study of the Neo-Conservative party and their efforts to control the population. They seek to convince people that we are in terrible trouble from terrorists. (The Power of Nightmares). They use control by fear of terror.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Edvard Munch - "The Scream" (1893)

I’ve been to England when people were afraid of bombs in fast food restaurants and airport lockers. But these people did not walk around in fear every minute; they would not buy into fear.

In the last debate, McCain put himself on the line as supporting accusations that Obama is connected to terrorists. Although his campaign had been pushing that subject for weeks, McCain said “I don’t care about an old washed-up terrorist. We need to know the full extent of Senator Obama’s relationship with ACORN, who is now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy.” As Saturday Night Live puts it, he also believes there is a unicorn under his bed.

It’s desperate, McCain, but you know you have to get people scared because when they get scared they get mad and fired up enough to get out there and vote. And anyone who opposes you, well, you have to discredit them, as quick as you can. Liberal, hippie, washed up: use those words.

McCain’s supporters have been recorded calling Obama a traitor and saying things like “kill him.”

McCain (from third debate):

“Let me just say categorically I’m proud of the people that come to our rallies. Whenever you get a large rally of 10,000, 15,000, 20,000 people, you’re going to have some fringe peoples. You know that. And I’ve — and we’ve always said that that’s not appropriate. I’m not going to stand for people saying that the people that come to my rallies are anything but the most dedicated, patriotic men and women that are in this nation and they’re great citizens.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Colin Powell is upset enough with McCain’s campaign to reprimand him in a press release.

The next thing McCain will do is insist on election fraud by ACORN. McCain will tell his lies and then it becomes our job to disprove it. Visit the ACORN website. Might as well get versed up in it ahead of time.

To my fellow people on this Earth who believe in McCain:

Our founding fathers gave us a Bill of Rights that has undermined our freedom

You refuse to watch the films, you refuse to question the stuff that is thrown at you.  We knew that Bush would not kill Osama, he is best friends with the Bin Laden family (see Farenheit 9/11).  He flew the Bin Laden family out of the U.S. directly after 9/11.  We, liberals, freethinkers, decent and creative people, were right. We were right about a lot of stuff: the war, Bush, torture, oil, violations to the constitution, our rights to free speech, and our rights to privacy. When we told you about it, you bullied us to get us to shut up. You are a long way from admitting that you were being bullies, just as you are a long way from admitting that fear lay beneath that. But know that it was all cleverly controlled. Being a bully is a way you were shown (by Fox News icon Bill O’Reilly and others) that gives you a sense of power when in reality you felt powerless. Now you need to WAKE UP. See the beautiful things around you that you have the power to destroy as you sleep.

You have been controlled through images of fear and terror. You react to it by hating and bullying and believing bullshit. Having to be “right” is a very low form of emotion for Democrats and Republicans alike. It’s barely above apathy. This is not the future we want for our United States. We are all in this together. Come back to us in this uphill battle to regain our freedoms and our prosperity and our health.

We miss you and miss America. We miss decency and fun. This is our most important choice.

Click here for a CNN transcript of the third debate.

The following video is the full 90-minute 3rd presidential debate.

Click here to view the embedded video.