I'm Voting For Obama

I don't imagine this will come as a surprise to anyone who has read this blog for long, but I might as well put it on the table as we careen toward election day.  Actually, the headline is wrong, I've already voted for Obama via an absentee ballot.  So sorry, Mr. Romney, even if you could conjure up an ad that impressed me (essentially reversing virtually ever one of your major policy planks) it's too late.

I am not a blind advocate of President Obama and his policies.  For every policy that I cheer (the Health Care bill) there's one I don't (detention without trial).  But the choice between Obama and Romney is as stark a one as I've seen since Nixon/McGovern.  Romney represents a massive leap backward, rolling back women's rights, gay rights, turning Medicare into a voucher system, and imposing tax hikes disguised as "closing loopholes" on the middle class to pay for tax breaks for the rich.  For all his faults, President Obama doesn't do all that.

I often scratch my head at the Romney supporters on medicare, or with kids under 26 still on their health insurance, or who have depended on some form of Government aide in the past.  These folks who seem hell-bent on voting against their own interests because... well, because they don't like paying taxes.  Or have some vague (absurd) feeling that Obama is a "socialist." 

But then I realize that by their thinking, I'm voting against MY interests.  Under Obama's plan, my taxes would go up.  But wild-eyed liberal that I am, I am willing to cough up the bucks to provide a basic safety net for folks who run out of luck or suffer some calamity not of their making (disease, storms, earthquakes, floods, etc.). Selfishly, I want a vast swath of people doing well because then some might watch my little teevee shows and I can keep making a living... 

And that's how I see it.  Nov. 6 oughta be interesting...