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End of the Presidential Race

Posted by opt4green on November 16, 2008 at 9:36 PM

To be honest I thought I was not going to post anything else about the Presidential race--in part because I am tired of hearing about politics, and the other part is that....well, I don't know the other part, but I don't have to because it is late and I am distracted. This was actually a homework assignment in English, so I decided to make it so that it fit the blog format--or I made it fit English format and wrote it to be long enough so I could say it's a blog post. As long as it works....Right?

Well, anyway, what we were supposed to do is read the acceptance and recession speeches by McCain and Obama, find some key quotes, and then write what we thought. Hope you enjoy, especially since this could possibly be the last post about politics.....ever......maybe not....nevermind.

McCain key phrases:

In a contest as long and difficult as this campaign has been, his success alone commands my respect for his ability and perseverance. But that he managed to do so by inspiring the hopes of so many millions of Americans who had once wrongly believed that they had little at stake or little influence in the election of an American president is something I deeply admire and commend him for achieving.

These are difficult times for our country. And I pledge to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face.

I am so deeply grateful to all of you for the great honor of your support and for all you have done for me. I wish the outcome had been different, my friends.

I have always been a fortunate man, and never more so for the love and encouragement you have given me.

Americans never quit. We never surrender.

We never hide from history. We make history.

Obama Key Phrases:

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

Because of what we did on this date in this election at this defining moment change has come to America.

For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime -- two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century.

There's new energy to harness, new jobs to be created, new schools to build, and threats to meet, alliances to repair.

I will listen to you, especially when we disagree.

This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were.

Let's resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long.

That's the true genius of America: that America can change. Our union can be perfected. What we've already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

This is our time, to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope. And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can.

What do I think of the results?

I think that after this long election in which neither candidate appeared to have the upper hand until the very end it is hard to say whether one was much better than the other. In my opinion McCain would be the better president, but Biden would be the better VP. Why is that so important? Well, because there is a likelihood that one of the candidates would die in office. As grim as it sounds in the case that it happens you have to consider how Biden and Palin would do as President, and it is very clear that Biden has the experience necessary to run the country, while it is still questionable in Palin?s case. If I voted however, I would have still voted for McCain for several reasons.

1- Energy policy: A while ago I wrote about this in the Opt4green.org blog. McCain and Obama have terrible energy policies, but Obama?s, in my opinion, is suicidal. First of all he wants to empty the federal oil reserve. The reserve could conceivably run the country for about three months if a crises were to come, it would give our president the opportunity to come up with a plan to solve whatever crises caused us to empty it. Obama says that he is going to do it to ?relieve the pain at the pump?, but the truth is that while it will ?relieve? the pain it will not solve the root of the problem?.and after a few months when all of that fuel is gone and nothing has been done to change to some other form of transportation (like natural gas), what will we do?

The second major problem that Obama?s plan has is the fact that he wants to ?renegotiate? all of our contracts for fuel. He says that if the price is not good he won?t accept the contract. There is a problem that he has not mentioned though, what happens when Iran decides it will sell its gas to China (or any other country) instead of us? In Iran the USA is known as ?Big Satan?, we are the enemy?.. This actually is going to bring me to another thought so I can illustrate my point. Imagine that you have a car you are trying to sell. The car is worth $2500. There is a person at work that you just cannot stand, they are always doing stuff to annoy you, there work is shoddy, and somehow they always get the promotions that you want. This person offers to buy your car for market value. Your brother also needs a car. He has been through everything with you, both of you are best friends and understand each other perfectly. He offers to buy the car for $2100. Now my question is who would you sell the car to? America is Iran?s coworker of sorts, and anyone else?in their eyes?is better. So when we go to renegotiate with Iran, or almost any Middle Eastern country for that matter, what do you think that they are going to say?

2- Health plans: Again, I think that both are simply terrible, but at least McCain?s would help some parts of our economy. McCain wants to privatize the health industry, which will have at least one good side effect, more people will be required in order to keep the industry running and it would lower unemployment. There are a lot of bad things about his plan, first and foremost being that with so many people getting money from the government for insurance taxes will have to be raised. The second big problem is that when this goes into effect there would be a lot of people that would get taken advantage of by dishonest insurance salesmen looking to make a profit.

Obama?s plan is another one that is going to cause problems with the economy. He wants to force companies to offer health insurance policies for employees, and the ones that do will have to meet predetermined conditions. At first this sounds great, but in reality it could cause more problems than it solves. First of all the economy is horrid?as we all well know?in order for companies to offer this insurance they are going to have to shell out quite a bit of money?for some it will be enough to cause them to go out of business, as a matter of fact it might cause a lot of them to go out of business. If the economy were not this bad then I would be all for Obama?s plan, but as it is it will hurt the economy, and then people will be on the street without an opportunity for any insurance.

-Austin Evans

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2 Comments

Reply Stacy

01:59 AM on November 17, 2008

I am excited about all of the Ada High members. They also hung up a sign at the last football game stating green options. Let's plant 1 million trees in Ada on November 22, 2008.

Reply Austin Evans

06:13 PM on November 19, 2008

That tree thing sounds pretty neat, you will have to send me some more details about it. I will put it on the upcoming events page soon....