In the famous words of a Batman foe...

riddle me this: why are politics such a touchy subject? Why do so many of us not want to talk about the presidential race? Isn't this subject one of paramount importance to us? Don't you dare say "no". Don't you dare say it doesn't matter who's in office "because it won't affect me". Who we elect does matter and it does affect every single one of us. For those of you who feel that who you vote for is a personal decision, I get that. I know that there's a reason we go into a booth all alone and pull those levers or punch those chads or fill in those circles in total privacy. It's to protect us voters from intimidation and/or attempts to influence our votes. I actually like that aspect of the voting booth. Here's what I don't get, though. Why are so many of us afraid to discuss our political choices with even our own friends? Why are we so afraid to express any political disagreements we may have with one another? Even more importantly, why is it so difficult to explain to one another why we like a certain candidate? I ask because, well...I honestly don't get Barack Obama's appeal. I just don't. As far as I can see, he has very questionable associations in his political past, his main accomplishments in his adult life are that he's written two autobiographies (one of which was inspired by a sermon given by Rev. Jeremiah Wright - a man I do not hesitate to call a racist) and he's campaigned for the office of president the majority of the time he's been a senator. How does that even begin to qualify him for the office of President of the United States of America? I know that some of you out there do support him, though. And I'd like to know why. Not so I can disrespect your choice and certainly not so that I can mock you, but mainly because you may possess information that I do not have and I'd like to know it. I need facts. I need to hear from people like me who have differing views. I need to learn all I can so that I can make an informed decision.
Have you ever been on a debate team? Do you know what the beauty of real debate is? It's getting to hear the position from "the other side". To bring that even closer to home...have you ever disagreed with your spouse on an issue regarding one of your children? Randey and I sure have. He's more "soft" and I'm more "hard line". I tend to speak in absolutes while Randey's full of "second chances". Normally, we manage to work it out without a lot of discussion. However, occasionally, we have some major disagreements about certain issues. We work it out like this: one of us will make an actual list (on paper) that details exactly what we think should happen. Then the other one takes that list and, item by item, either agrees or disagrees and if we disagree, we offer an alternative solution or we state what our position is. The list goes back to the other person and so on until we're able to reach an agreement between us that we both can live with. The amazing thing about this method? I've had to realize on more than one occasion that I had become too hard nosed about something and wasn't considering all the ramifications of an action I was proposing. The same thing has happened with Randey. He's been able to see the "other side" of an issue that he hadn't previously considered. Learning what Randey's stances were and how he came to those stances has helped me understand the "bigger picture". I believe the same could be said of him. That's what debate is for.
I want to hear from you Obama supporters. I want to know why you believe he'll be the better president. I want to hear the "other side". I wish I could depend on the media for this, but I can't. CNN and MSNBC are so far in the tank for Obama that I question everything I see and hear from them. FOX is so far in the tank for McCain that I question them, too. In fact, Steve Doocy from Fox and Friends could be called the "Chris Matthews of the Right". The other networks are no better. Maybe not as obvious, but still pretty much uninformative on the issues I want to hear about. I was watching ABC this morning and they were talking about a hard hitting story on what caused this banking crisis and who was responsible. What did their "investigation" uncover? That the head of Lehman Brothers made $500 million while his company was knowingly making bad loans. Well, duh. Thanks a lot. I wanted to hear more about who in Washington should be held responsible. Why? Because those are the people we elect to look out for us. I didn't elect the head of Lehman Brothers. And after researching for myself and learning about the outrageous bonuses and salaries paid to these CEOs, I kind of figured out for myself that most of them are crooks. I think law enforcement should be investigating those guys. I think the media should be investigating our politicians. And I mean investigating - not digging for dirt, not joining in on the feeding frenzy of the pundits and not trying to sway public opinion one way or the other. Remember when Sarah Palin was first announced as McCain's running mate? Man, the media just ate her and her family alive. Some of it, I agreed with. I do want to know her background, her record, her stances...I want to know what her constituents think of her. The rest of it? Not so much. It wasn't necessary for me to know that she colors her hair, I didn't need to see where she got her hair done, I didn't need to see that picture of her wearing the beauty queen crown every single day, week after week, when I clicked on a story from msn.com. I also want to hear about Obama's ties to Ayers, his ties to Jeremiah Wright, his ties to Acorn. I want to hear how and why he came to be in Chicago. How he financed his education at both Columbia and Harvard and how he and his wife (who were supposedly saddled with extensive debt from student loans that reportedly paid for their educations) could afford to spend several months in Bali while he wrote his first autobiography. Who can do that? How could they be swimming in debt and yet afford a 3 month trip to Indonesia? Yes, it matters! If his entire political career has been financed by others, I want to know who financed it. What was their stake in this? And if he paid for it himself, how? I'm not sure why the press isn't reporting on this. Heck, Palin made a comment about Obama "palling around with terrorists" and she's being slammed every which way for it. CNN flat out said her claim was false. But...it's not. Look up the Chicago Annenberg Challenge online. I did. My research on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge certainly tended to indicate a more extensive relationship between Obama and Ayers than Obama has previously indicated. Obama's response, when asked about Ayers during the 2008 Democratic Primary presidential primaries, was this:

"This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood, who's a professor of English in Chicago who I know and who I have not received some official endorsement from. He's not somebody who I exchange ideas from on a regular basis."

Okay. But not only did Obama and Ayers have multiple contacts in connection with the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, they also served on the the Woods Fund of Chicago together for years, and Ayers hosted a meet-and-greet at his house to introduce Obama to his neighbors during Obama's first Illinois state Senate campaign in 1995. By the way, for those of you who don't know who Ayers is, think on this: Ayers describes himself this way:

"I am a radical, Leftist, small 'c' communist ..."

In 1969 he co-founded the violent radical left organization Weather Underground which was active during the 1960s and 1970s. Does it matter that Obama had this much contact with someone like William Ayers. Yeah, it does. It certainly matters a heck of a lot more than where Sarah Palin gets her hair done. I think it's unfortunate for us that the media has chosen to believe they are, by and large, a part of the political process rather than the reporters of it.

I'm asking all of you Obama supporters to please tell me what I'm missing about him. What do you see in him? I'm open to listen. If you don't feel comfortable doing that in a comment, please e-mail me at grannyskywalker (at) yahoo (dot) com. I want to hear your views. Let me be honest, though, and tell you I might use your comments in a future post. I will not, however, use your name if you expressly request that I do not. I'm not wanting to put anyone on the hot seat, but rather I'm wanting to start a dialogue. I want to listen, I want to understand. I want to learn all I can before I cast my vote this November.