You Need to Vote.

I was going to have a long drawn out post for this, but by the time I finish that one it'll be sometime Thursday. So instead I'll just go with this makeshift message that says that you need to get out and vote.

You need to vote because it's important to express your opinion. I could tell you it's important to have an opinion, but that's its own discussion. But as a general rule, I refuse to even listen to the political or social opinion of anyone who doesn't have the common decency to at the very least go out and vote for the most important political office this country has. There are going to be a lot of so-called "politically-vocal" individuals going onto my ignore list shortly, and no doubt they'll be a few going onto my "Do not respect" list, too. That's also being determined by your capacity to vote.

You need to vote because this may well be the single most significant election in your lifetime. I know people toss that around, but look at how things were 8 years ago. Or 8 years before that. Or even 4 or 12 years before that. Granted, I've lost some people because they were barely walking at that point, but the fact remains that the past few decades of presidential elections haven't had nearly as much at stake. With the possible exception of 4-8 years ago, where some might argue that all of this downturn started (I won't for the sake of brevity), there may well be no more important a time in our country than right now. The person we elect on Tuesday will be in charge of helping us out of this mess. I say it that way because no one can reasonably think that one man can singlehandedly solve the crisis that we're in. But still, this is an important choice.

So get out there and do your thing. I'll assume that most people have made up their minds by now, but if you're still undecided, all I can ask you to do is look at the issues, look at the measure of the candidates, and look inside yourself. You know what you'll need from your next president, and I have to believe that even the least of you have a fairly competent B.S. detector. So I think that if you go with that, you'll be able to find the person that fits best with your ideals, viewpoint, and state of mind.

Personally, I'm voting for Obama. I don't dislike McCain, or at least I can say that I didn't when this election cycle started. But honestly, I cannot in good conscience vote to elect the man into office when he has spent few months doing nothing but being divisive, deceptive, and just downright bitter with regards to his opponent. His campaign strategy has been erratic at best and ill-conceived even by the kindest of standards. His choice for a running mate is so fundamentally incompetent that she can't even grasp an appropriate interpretation of the Bill of Rights. I can't conceive of putting someone like that into the number 2 spot of our country, and I can't grasp how someone could make the choice to add her to their ticket.

As far as I can tell, McCain is either completely out of grip with the state of the country or is surrounded by too many advisors telling him the wrong thing to do and is unable to properly shut them down. Neither case makes him a good choice for Commander-in-Chief.

Love him or hate him, Obama has been the guy who has shown steady direction for the majority of this election. He seems cool, composed, sensible, and even receptive to what others have to say. He's reached out to younger voters while still keeping in touch with the older generation. He's had a message of change tempered with hope and guided by intellect. He has faced an almost unprecedented number of attacks from all of his opponents over the past two years and has managed to maintain his composure and his sense of dignity.

Even if I were to believe that he's not as good as he comes off most of the time, I believe the man has done what any good leader must do. He's surrounded himself with intelligent people and allowed them to guide in the right direction. I know this because his opponent has so blatantly surrounded himself with the wrong people.

I could spend another page and a half outlining how I feel about both candidates, but I'll just break it down to this: if I measure the attitude, words, and behavior of the two men currently running for the office of president, there is only one man at this point that I still respect. That man's name is Barack Obama.

Now darn it all, I didn't mean to turn this into a political endorsement, so I'll close this the same way I started it. No matter how you feel or who you plan to vote for, you need to vote. You owe it to yourself and to your and everyone else's future to make your choice known while you have the chance to.