Election 2008

During my research about the Presidential Election for the year 2008, I took a quiz to see which candidate I agreed with more. As I expected I agree with Barack Obama seventy-eight percent of the time. I only agreed with John McCain forty-one percent of the time, which to me is not enough for my vote. My whole family are die-hard democrats and Barack Obama has showed me why. I have watched speeches by John McCain and have understand how he feels about certain things, but at the same time watching Barack Obama makes me angry that I am not old enough to vote for him.

America needs a president that is for change. Barack Obama is that president . John McCain wants America to stay the same. With him as our president it would be like having Bush in office for another four years. To me the biggest issues in the election are abortion and the War in Iraq. I believe that these issues are very important and are worth talking about.

Barack Obama feels that abortion should not be banned by the government. He calls abortion rights "not just an issue of choice, but equality and opportunity for all women." Obama has said that one more conservative Supreme Court appointee could overturn Roe v. Wade and he has suggested that he will appoint judges who will protect "women's fundamental right to choose." He says he would sign the Freedom of Choice Act, which would guarantee abortion rights "before fetal viability" across the country and invalidate many individual state laws that restrict access to abortion. Obama has said that he trusts women "to make these decisions in conjunction with their doctors and their families and their clergy." He feels that the government should not have the power to tell a woman what she can and can not do with her body.

John McCain supports allowing abortion only in cases of rape, incest, or risk to the mother's life, and he support a constitutional amendment to ban abortion nationwide in all other cases. He says he supports the "rights of the unborn" and hopes that women seeking abortions will instead "bring those children into life in this world." McCain wants Roe v. Wade to be overturned -- he believes the decision is an example of judges legislating from the bench, and he say he would appoint judges who do not legislate from the bench. McCain also opposes the Freedom of Choice Act, a bill that would invalidate many state restrictions on abortion.

Barack Obama wants to bring our troops home. Under Obama's plan, withdrawal from Iraq would begin immediately and all combat brigades would leave within 16 months. Obama would leave a residual force of undetermined size to "strike at al Qaeda in Iraq" and "protect U.S. diplomats and facilities," but says this would not be a permanent force. He would not support building a permanent base in Iraq, and says that we should abide by Prime Minister Maliki's recent request for a withdrawal timetable. On withdrawal, Obama says that we must be as "careful getting out as we were careless getting in." He says that he would "pursue a diplomatic offensive with every nation in the region" to help stabilize Iraq, and that he would also spend $2 billion on aid for Iraqi refugees. Obama argues that withdrawal from Iraq will allow us to commit more troops to Afghanistan.

John McCain thinks that we should keep our troops in Iraq. McCain believes that "we are winning" in Iraq, and that "if we fail in Iraq, we'll see Iraq become a center for al Qaeda, chaos, genocide in the region, and they'll follow us home." He has compared premature withdrawal to "surrender," and defines victory as when Iraq is a stable democracy. He says that reducing violence in Iraq and "building a capable Iraqi army" will help lead to a political settlement. McCain says he hopes and expects that the war will be over and most troops will be home by 2013. However, he also says that he would not withdraw until Iraq is a stable democracy, implying that he would support U.S. engagement beyond then if violence continued. Recently, he has said that most troops "could" be out of Iraq by 2010, and that a 16-month timetable is "good" as long as it's based on conditions on the ground.

I am not writing this paper to persuade you to vote for Barack Obama, nor am I writing this essay to stop you from voting for John McCain. I am however giving you true facts about the Presidential candidates of the 2008 election. The choice is up to you, that is why America is so great. A country where you can vote for who ever you want into any office. But please do your research before you vote.