Civic Duty

Well as of today I no longer need to concern myself with which party says what in hopes that they can sway my vote. A few days ago I went down and requested an absentee ballot because tomorrow I fly out of the country. I may be back before the election but I figure there is no need to risk it. There was never much chance that my vote would change anyway I can say with confidence that during the conventions I had seen all I needed to see. I had hoped to see a clear difference and clear plans laid out that would differentiate the two parties. I am not big fan of Obama and last election I voted against him. I liked McCain couldn’t stand Sarah and my biggest fear was that he would pass away and she would be left in charge however I respected the man and his service to our country and that made the difference. That was still a tough decision because of her. Its a scary thought.

The past four years have been rough but I can see a slow turnaround and it looks like a steady comeback. My view of the country is tempered because I travel out of the country quite a bit. Actually I fly out tomorrow again. My point being though is I have taken the opportunity to talk with people of many different nations and I remember one nice lady said to me she didn’t understand why he (Obama) gets so much blame for the current state of things. She went on to say the whole world is in bad shape and that it takes ego to think one man can fix it all by himself and that would be an impossibility. She had recently visited New York and said even with the protesters my county (America) is doing very well given the circumstances our conversation went on and touched on the global market among other things. I have had many such conversations with many people from around the world so I like to think that I can see things a little clearer in some regards.

To the matter of voting. I can’t see that either candidate is going to change positions drastically in either direction however it would be nice to actually know what Romney’s position is. In all seriousness he had such an opportunity at the convention to lay out a clear plan but didn’t and it is my opinion that it was at that moment he threw the entire race. I have heard him expound somewhat on 60 minutes explain his thoughts on limiting speech for unions just recently, The secret recordings have come out and I am sure there are some other things that I am just not aware of. I have also heard him come out and try to explain these gaffs but I don’t put much stock in that simply because of his track record where he has flip-flopped on every issue from just a few years ago. IMO he represents the epitome of a politician saying whatever he thinks you want to hear. They all do but he is almost cliché in it.

I will have to say I didn’t care for Romney before I knew much about him. One of the first things I learned about him was how he dodged military service using the religion card and to me it takes a lot of gall for him to then stand there and say he has what it takes to be Commander and Chief of all the United States Military. As a veteran I find it insulting as human I find it a little frightening that he would be sending troops to battle because from what I heard he was pushing for war back then even though he wasn’t willing to go himself. This is just me be I think it shows that he feels that he is above these things he reminds me of aristocratic royalty.

I hope no one thinks I am trying to be mean here because I am not to be honest I am dead tired and my plane leaves in 6 hours and I still have a few things to do.

For the record I know Obama is not the greatest thing since sliced bread he’s far from it but I know he is the best choice between the two. The best choice by far in this election is Gary Johnson however the last time I voted third party in an important election like this Bush JR got his first term and I am from Florida and live in one of those counties that drove the nation crazy. Don’t get me wrong standing on your principles is great but because of that election when the next one came I was filling out my absentee ballot standing in Iraq.

Well I need to get back to packing but I can say I feel a lot better now that I have cast my vote…Ah one other thing that was good about getting it out of the way is that I was able to research everything on the ballet where I didn’t feel rushed because a lot of stuff on there is just as important as the election itself.

Anyway I hope everyone choses wisely and if you can you get it done as soon as possible because it does kind of take a weight off of you and at the very least people will stop trying to change your mind.

Vote Peace
Peace Vote just vote

BTW I hope I can watch the debates on my laptop where I stay they should have Wi-Fi it should be a good dog and pony show.