his muslim beliefs and going to a church that preachs hate of america should be enough for people to not vote for him, like I said i will not vote because there are to many chances for a hostile take over here in the good usa but it will be on your own shoulders win ity all hits the fan. I just can't believe the hype for this guy yes he's black yey for that but get a black guy that doen't have the ties he does it's ok to belive whatever you wnat but when you push it on people thats when you are dead wrong! i beleive he will do what he says and stick to his muslim beliefs and will ultimatly create a situation for christians like in europe. Nuff said I believe what i do but i will force it on anyone I will sit back and watch. They the terrosits lie watching and waiting and this is a ?? why doesn't anyone see what he's about???

After reading through this whole post and all of the responses it just re-assures me that I'm doing the right thing by not being a part of EITHER party. This is ridiculous how much division/contention/hate that all of this election stuff causes! I'm still NOT going to be voting this time around because there is no choice in the matter, but if I did I would definitely be writing in a third party candidates name on my ballot because neither of these guys are worth my vote. I'm staying busy with being in the know with more important matters like how long our economy is going to hold out or how long until another 9/11 staged attack hits U.S soil and we pay even more by giving up more of our freedoms and liberties. This election is a total joke!

I can sympathize with your concern, but we've got to look at the future and what we've been drawn down to, and where we want to go. Let's look at your concerns.

1. Read his website if you want to know where he stands. Lots of info there

http://www.barackobama.com/issues/

2. His ties to Bill Ayers are superficial at best. (link below)

http://www.fightthesmears.com/

John McCain has his own ties to shady characters, like Charles Keating, http://my.barackobama.com/page/invite/keatingvideo , or his association with a group connected with Iran-Contra? http://www.kansascity.com/445/story/829795.html

3. Obama is not involved in any misdeeds ACORN may or may not be committing and hired the group in good faith.

4. In the Illinois Legislature, a "present" vote is a "no" vote to which you can explain "why". Apparently, they don't do that everywhere, but in Illinois "present" is the same as a no with an explanation. Not dishonorable, as you suggest. If you're really concerned, read the explanations that came with the "present" votes.

5 Okay, so he may be more liberal than most, but look what six year of "Conservative" Republican House and Senate rule with a Repubican president got us. Six years of solid "conservative" rule where the "conservatives" spent money and grew government in ways that made "liberals" look like amateurs. Maybe him voting different from the "conservatives" wasn't so bad a thing.

6. The numbers you give in his economic plan are a drop in the bucket compared the the hundreds of billions of dollars we've handed to Halliburton and the like over the last seven years, while they feed our troops rotten food, etc. (link below). HIs plan at least would put the money in the hands of the people who do the spending and sustain the economy.

7. Redistribution -- is that what happens when you give AIG 80 billion dollars and they "redistribute" $400,000 to their executives for a week-long resort retreat? Or is "redistribution" when the taxpayers bail out Mortgage schuysters to the tune of $800 billion? Or is "redistribution" is what happened when Sarah Palin levied high taxes on the oil companies, then gave every man, woman, and child $3,000 some dollars this year., thus assuring a high approval rating She hit the oil companies so hard on the taxes that there are doubts about being able to afford the pipeline she wants so bad.

When worrying about "redistribution", ask yourself whether Obama/Biden's tax plan will improve your life or make it worse... do you make more than $250,000? Or have your finances taken a hit like most people's? Do you want a tax plan that serves you, or let the wealthy keep more on the basis of "principle"?

And how to pay for it all? When consumers are healthier and the economy is healthier and everybody is making more money and spending more money, there will be more than enough to meet all needs. Better for that money to be in the hands in the people than to be paying for over-priced spa treatments and resort retreats for the rich. Because that's where are tax dollars are going under the current plan. I'd like to have a bit of that cash.

I don't think Obama is a bad guy, or would do things to harm the nation. I have confidence that he would surround himself with intelligent advisors, not cronies with stock in the oil industry and big pharma, making policy decisions to enrich his oil and corporate friends the way Republicans have done since they've been in power. If Obama/Biden deliver 1/10th of what they promise, America will be on much better footing. The Repubican way has proven to be for the birds. I say take a chance on change. We could all be happy (and healthy) again.

http://fightthesmears.com

I see that you've jumped on the McCain bandwagon of smear tactics that completely ignore facts.

Ok, first off, Obama was eight years old when Ayers committed the acts the McCain camp is referring to. So I find the attempt to link Obama to those acts as ludicrous.

Also, I guess "civil" would rather spread the ridiculous garbage related to Obama and ACORN that is being spewed by scumbag voter-disenfranchiser Ken Blackwell (who led George Bush's Ohio campaign in 2004), than try to explain the merits of John McCain. Apparently John McCain has forgot his pledge to "run a clean and respectible campaign based on the issues" and his followers are apparently willing to overlook that broken promise and join in.

In his attempt to establish ties between Obama and McCain, "civil" failed to mention that Obama never directly worked for ACORN in any capacity. However, it's true that Obama did successfully represent ACORN in a lawsuit that forced the state of Illinois to comply with federal voting access law. Why is that a bad thing? Is the McCain camp arguing that Illinois should be allowed to disenfranchise voters?

If you want to talk about questionable connections that candidates have, how about McCain's connection to the Keating Five scandal? McCain's interference with the Lincoln Savings and Loan investigation cost the taxpayers more than $3 billion when that bank collapsed. Is this the "steady hand at the till" that we want during today's fiscal crisis? It's more like a steady hand IN the till.

As for candidates that we really can't afford right now, I think McCain fits that description best. His corporate tax cuts will assuredly add to the $9 TRILLION DEBT we've accumulated during the Bush presidency. At some point in the near future, our country is going to have to face up to that debt and raise money to pay it off.

Obama is being honest about a need to raise money, and he wants to get it from the people who have the most to give: those who earn more than $250,000 a year. McCain would rather continue living in denial about the debt, give the top earners in this country a tax cut and then pass a disproportionate amount of the national debt burden onto the middle class.

Now onto your belief that "liberalism" is a curse word or something. It's evident that your definition of liberalism is based views spewed by Rush Limbaugh and Fox News, who also don't know what it means. To help you out (from Wikipedia):

"Different forms of liberalism may propose very different policies, but they are generally united by their support for a number of principles, including extensive freedom of thought and speech, limitations on the power of governments, the rule of law, the free exchange of ideas, private property, free markets, and a transparent system of government.
Political liberalism is the belief that individuals are the basis of law and society, and that society and its institutions exist to further the ends of individuals, without showing favor to those of higher social rank."

Yeah, these really sound like very bad and scary beliefs...

I will be voting for McCain after much deliberation.

Mminnoe, your bigotry shows more and more. It is really beginning to bug me.

HIS FATHER WAS A KENYAN, AND A BLACK
HIS MOTHER IS KANSAN, ATHEIST, AND WHITE. SO
HIS FATHER DESERTED HIS MOTHER AND HIM WHEN HE WAS VERY YOUNG AND MOVED BACK TO LIVE WITH HIS FAMILY IN KENYA
HIS WHITE MOTHER THEN MARRIED AN INDONESIAN MUSLIM AND TOOK HIM TO THE CITY OF JAKARTA WHERE HE WAS FIRST SCHOOLED IN A MUSLIM SCHOOL.
HIS MOTHER THEN MOVED TO HAWAII AND HE WAS RAISED BY HIS WHITE MIDDLE CLASS - AMERICAN GRANDPARENTS THERE.
HE WENT TO THE BEST HIGH DOLLAR PREP SCHOOLS IN AMERICA, AND NEXT HE GOT INTO A TOP IVY LEAGUE COLLEGE, AND LATER, INTO HARVARD LAW SCHOOL –

A U.S. SENATOR'S SALARY IS NOT THAT GREAT, BUT THIS YOUNG MAN AND HIS YOUNG WIFE JUST RECENTLY BOUGHT A $1.4 MILLION DOLLAR HOUSE
AND, RIGHT OUT OF HARVARD LAW, HE 'WORKED' AS A CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST IN CHICAGO
WE CAN ASSUME IT IS LITTLE OR NOTHING PAY WISE!
HE THEN ENTERED POLITICS AT THE STATE LEVEL WHICH CERTAINLY IS A LOW PAYING JOB, AND THEN MOVED RIGHT TO THE NATIONAL LEVEL
IN ALL HIS MINIMAL TIME IN THE STATE, AND NATIONAL LEGISLATURES - HE'S NEVER LAUNCHED ANY IMPORTANT LEGISLATION, NONE WHATSOEVER. So none of this is his fault.
.
ENDORSEMENTS FOR HIM FROM OTHER COUNTRIES, ONES THAT ARE NOT EXACTLY USA FRIENDS, LIKE THE IRAN PRES, FRENCH PRES, THE IRAQ MINISTER THAT WANTS USA OUT.
HE is 'PROUD OF HIS AFRICAN HERITAGE' –
He has OUTSPOKEN PRIDE IN HIS WHITE HERITAGE? AFTER ALL - IT WAS WHITE GRANDPARENTS THAT RAISED HIM!
HE IS PRESENTLY A MEMBER, FOR OVER 20 YEARS OF AN 'AREOCENTRIC' CHURCH
BUT HE CAN CONFRONT NORTH KOREA AND IRAN AND RUSSIA WHEN THE TIME ARISES TO TAKE AMERICA'S SIDE.
YEAH - WITH HIS BACKGROUND AND EXPERIENCE, HE 'HOPES' THAT HE COULD BE A "UNITER" AND BRING US ALL TOGETHER;