America's COMBAT soldiers who've re-enlisted in record numbers will vote with their feet if BO is elected POTUS BO and your POTUS BO will be THE singe reason the US will be forced to reinstate the draft. In these times, America can't afford a national defense downgraded to the level of soldier a draft would give us.

What's telling is here in Utah I have yet to see ONE McCain yard sign. One of the reddest of red states is luke-warm about McCain, sure they'll vote for him but they don't like him.

I shouldn't have to divulge that in order to justify having a conversation with people whose views vary from mine anyway, but since I have chosen to talk about my voting record I would ask that you at least stop lying about it.

;>

In what way, for instance, has Obama's judgment actually proven superior in the current economic crisis? Perhaps you preferred his style, but in reality although he criticized McCain for injecting presidential politics the record actually shows that it was the Congressional Dems who did so (Reid first tried to blast McCain for not coming to DC, then when McCain called his bluff and actually went, Reid and others said that they did not want him there- as though he had no right as a US Senator and prospective president to attempt to influence one of the biggest policy decisions of our lifetime.)

And it's still way too soon to judge whether any actual policy stances of each candidate has proven right or wrong (look at the bailout- the market tanks when it's voted down, then tanks again today in spite of it passing.) Truth is that no one knows what is right or wrong. Unfortunately, although everyone wants to say that we shouldn't point fingers, this is precisely one of the situations where blame must be assigned in order to figure out what went wrong so that we can correct it.

A lot of moderates have accepted the demonization of Phil Gramm, for instance, and by association have turned away from McCain. Yet his involvement in the bill that overturned Glass Steagall was a highly bipartisan endeavor and was (and still is) endorsed by Bill Clinton.

So on substance of economics, I don't see why Obama is getting such a bump from this crisis (and that's before we even get into the spending and size of government parts of that issue.) Since I also favor McCain's stance on foreign policy issues, I would have a hard time agreeing with you if that is where your decision stems from (as you mentioned that it's not just the economy.)

Although we're very narrowly focused just now, the challenges facing the next president aren't limited to the economy. I've put a great deal of thought into the financial situation, and still found that Obama's temperament was a persuasive deciding factor.

I understand that demeanor and temperament do matter, but I think most people are accepting a media and liberal blog driven narrative of McCain's temperament which is a caricature of the real man, and even to the degree that Obama is more deliberative he comes to the wrong conclusions (in the eyes of a conservative or center right voter) when he's finished deliberating.

McCain Loses His Head

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By George F. Will
Tuesday, September 23, 2008; Page A21
…
Under the pressure of the financial crisis, one presidential candidate is behaving like a flustered rookie playing in a league too high. It is not Barack Obama.

Channeling his inner Queen of Hearts, John McCain furiously, and apparently without even looking around at facts, said Chris Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, should be decapitated. This childish reflex provoked the Wall Street Journal to editorialize that “McCain untethered” — disconnected from knowledge and principle — had made a “false and deeply unfair” attack on Cox that was “unpresidential” and demonstrated that McCain “doesn't understand what's happening on Wall Street any better than Barack Obama does.”
…

http://www.wsj.com/article/SB122178318884054675...

John McCain has made it clear this week he doesn't understand what's happening on Wall Street any better than Barack Obama does. But on Thursday, he took his populist riffing up a notch and found his scapegoat for financial panic — Christopher Cox, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. To give readers a flavor of Mr. McCain untethered, we'll quote at length:
…

The GOP “deserves” a long timeout.

Who exactly is being punished, if by reflexively voting against one party we're ignoring the abuses of the other?

I have not been very happy with the fundamentals of this economy or the backsliding of this nation in global popularity for several years now. So I have watched the primaries as they whittled down the hopefuls and listened to the viewpoints of all the Rep & Dem candidates until there were only 2 left.

I found myself listening to Senator Obama and being more & more impressed. I also found myself hoping that Senator McCain would come up with something that would spark my interest more in his favor. The selection of Joe Biden for running mate was a practical and thoughtful decision for Obama. The selection of Palin by McCain was a bold move & might have worked, however every time she speaks just makes me wince yet again.

I watched with increduality at McCains recent erratic actions & statements. Now I listen to her and the once respected Senator McCain relying solely on character assasination & negativity to propel their platform. What happened to the issues? Obama's negativity seems to be a defensive maneuver every time McCain/Palin launch another attack.

I am off the fence now and standing in the democrat's backyard. I know that this will also surprise and offend some of my family and friends as well- I have been very positively vocal in the past of the Rep tickets, however my conscience won't let me go with it this time. Believe me, I still have plenty of questions about a Obama/Biden presidency, but I believe that between the realistic presidential options available to us- The Democratic ticket comes out ahead.

CS says: The GOP will not be reformed in time to keep the corruption of the Democratic party in check, MaryL, if we don't maintain divided rule. We need it now more than ever since we can't afford the payola schemes that have dominated Washington politics and led to the economic meltdown.

Of course you felt this way in 2000 and 2004 when Bush won Romanesque landslide and push his mandates on the 49% who voted against Bush. Why shouldn't Obama deserve the same Bush mandate?

The GOP needs to do the same, but I don't think they'll have the motivation until they are roundly defeated and realize that the extreme right base just is not there anymore. 4 or 8 years ago, McCain was much more energized and moderate, but I think time and circumstance has worn him down to the point where he knows this is his last chance and he cannot snub the Bush administration while also maintaining Republican support. Sadly, his response has been to make bad and irresponsible gambles like Sarah Palin and deflect our scrutiny onto Obama through negative campaigning in an effort to look engaged, active and in control. He's stuck between the rock of breaking with party lines to decry the current regime and the hard place of needing to win since this is his last shot.

The people want moderates and they will vote for whichever party gives them the most moderate candidates. When faced with a moderate Dem. vs a moderate Rep., nuances and fundamental party ideals will become important again. Until then, no amount of distractions like spunky, folksy inexperienced female running mates trotting out overstated terrorist associations will fool anyone who doesn't want to be fooled.

I'm also finding myself leaning towards voting Democrat for US Senate here in VA, since even our retiring Republican Senator John Warner is calling the Republican candidate former VA Gov. Jim Gilmore very partisan and wrong-headed in his relentlessly vocal opposition of the bailout bill (plus I take issue with a number of his past dealings as governor and viewpoints on where both our state and country should go forward on several key issues.)

I had hoped a few months back that I'd get to choose between two platforms that represented serious change, albeit in fundamentally different ways. The two candidates are indeed fundamentally different, but only one of them is also fundamentally different from the very damaging and disturbing Bush policies that have trounced all over the Constitution and caused a much bigger mess than just bad mortgages and Iraq (though those 2 are more than enough for any one country.)

Still 2 debates to go but with McCain pulling out of key battleground states and going full negative, I don't expect to hear any substance from him or any resurrection of the spunky bipartisan man who truly was a maverick back before he himself made the word tired, trite and meaningless. I'll pretty much just be watching to study Obama's cool-as-a-cucumber style even more and try to gauge what to expect from him when he enters office.