Why I am Voting for Obama

October 26, 2008

by Lorenzo A. Canizares

In a few days the nation will be selecting a new President. For the sake of our nation I hope it is Barack Obama.

The last eight years could be considered for a great number of Americans a national disaster. Nothing has been done right. The economy has tanked following the rule of logic. Expenditures galore thanks to two wars, and good jobs leaving our shores; while revenues shrank thanks to tax cuts to the very wealthy and a shrinking middle class that relies on credit to hold onto their former standard of living.

John McCain proposes more of the same Bush policies. He will continue the tax cuts to the very wealthy while increasing taxes on the middle class and the working poor through his health care plan. McCain, as candidate of the Republican Party, will certainly be more prone to cut even more in programs that benefit children, elderly and the poor. But, the main reason to avoid McCain like the plague is that he doesn’t seem to have learned any lessons from the past eight years. He claims to be anti-Bush, but his essence is the same or worse. His selection of Sarah Palin for Vice-President is now recognized by the vast majority of Americans as a major mistake. The Palin selection clearly shows that McCain is more interested in partisan delight than in the well-being of the nation. It should remind Americans of “Brownie” as head of FEMA during the New Orleans debacle.

McCain talks about winning the war in Iraq whatever that means. Apparently, McCain fails to recognize that we are an occupying force which will guarantee a forever opposition to our presence. In this sense he is worst than Bush who is trying to negotiate a withdrawal. The expenditures of $10-12 billion per month in Iraq should be cause of concern to our economy, and a major incentive to withdraw.

In Afghanistan, I don’t see any indication that McCain has any sense of urgency regarding what is happening there. It should also be a matter of concern his lackadaisical attitude towards Bin-Laden as shown through his response to what we should do if Bin-Laden is spotted in Pakistan.

Obama, on the other hand, right from the start of the campaign identified the state of our economy as the main issue to focus on. This tells me that Obama has a much clear understanding to what middle class and working people are going through during these days. Obama’s plan to cut taxes to the vast majority of Americans who make less than $250,000 per year is a brilliant maneuver that in the long run will have major positive effect in the economy by adding monies to hundred of millions that need it to buy goods. Obama has also talked about tax credits for business owners as long as they hire workers.

Obama’s opposition to the Iraq War is well documented; what it’s sometimes glossed over are the reasons he opposed our involvement. Obama was clear from the get-go that Iraq would be a quagmire that will tie us down for years. He was also reticent to support a war that did not have an exit strategy attached together with it. He never believed that we will be greeted as liberators. In Afghanistan, Obama understands the urgency of the crisis there. He will also be more open to share views with Republican officials, like Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, on how to deal with difficult foreign policy objectives. McCain, I am sorry to say, is yet to identify his objectives. Platitudes will not do the job.

The choice of Joe Biden as Vice-President is another indicator of the seriousness of Obama. Biden is a nationally recognized expert on foreign policy matters. Biden is also a man very capable of succeeding Obama if needed.

Much has been mentioned of Obama’s support overseas, especially in Europe. The reason has nothing to do with Obama’s celebrity status or silver tongue, but much to do with his policies. The world economy is inter-connected. The United States is the main player. How our economy functions resonates all over the world. The “Greed Rage” that infected us also caught others. Everybody, Greedy or not, is paying for the excesses of a few. The world needs sanity back in control of our nation.

To conclude, I believe the Obama presidency will face serious obstacles, but with Obama/Biden we have the possibility of gathering the nation’s best minds, free of partisan short-sightedness, to save us from sinking deeper.

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Written by Lorenzo A. Canizares · Filed Under Politics

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Letter to the Editor: Good Cars need Good Teams - by R. A. Letcher, PhD

Good cars need good teams -- designers, engineers, line workers… and learning-oriented managers by Robert A. Letcher, PhD [Author’s note: I submitted the following as a letter to the editor of The New York Times, after that paper carried an article under the headline, "To Fix Detroit, Obama Is Said to Drop Plan for ‘Car Czar’", 02/15/2009.] It is widely accepted that you can't win a horse race without a good horse. Of course, it helps to have a lot of money and a good plan for spending it. But, you still need a good horse. The authors reminded me of this when they wrote: “The companies’ plans are required to show progress in cutting long-term costs as a condition for keeping their loans.” I doubt GM and Chrysler can win this most important "automobile race" merely by having better accountants and more muscular negotiators: they still need a good "horse". That means the companies will have to show that their teams can still design and build cars that people are drawn to buy and willing to pay for: winners. I doubt they can. The problem isn't that they didn't know how to; it's that they don't know how to break out of the group-think that ensnarled them, their managers, their whole organizations, decades ago. I would be more optimistic, had the government also required the companies to include plans for transforming themselves into learning organizations. Aye, there’s the rub: learning entails risk-taking, not “yes people”.
Bob's Bail Out Plan by bobl-tlm
Fiscal Therapy - Getting the economy back on its feet, giving taxpayers a break, saving your retirement fund and your kid's college tuition? Done. And it won't cost you a penny.

For years now, whenever I've been invited to lecture students on how our tax system works, I have asked a simple question: What is the purpose of the United States of America? The most common answer, be it at prestigious universities, elite prep schools, rural community colleges, or crowded urban high schools, is this: To make people rich. This should come as no great surprise. For anyone born after, say, 1970, the world has been shaped by Ronald Reagan's remaking of government's relationship with private interests—a vision of lower taxes, less regulation, and maximum economic leeway for those at the top. In this view, the pursuit of wealth is the warp and weft of America; everything else will follow. By contrast, the preamble to the Constitution tells us the nation's reason for being in 52 words that can be reduced to six principles: society, justice, peace, security, commonwealth, and freedom. Individual riches don't make the list. They are a product of American society, not its guiding purpose. Progress, then, must begin with a return to the best of the values that created this Second American Republic—one born, it's worth remembering, from the failure of the Articles of Confederation, whose principles (weak government, unfettered capitalism) found their resurrection in the economic policies of the past three decades.
read more at Mother Jones
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