"The road to hell is paved with good intentions"

....or L'enfer est plein de bonnes volontés ou désirs ("Hell is full of good intentions or wishes") - St. Bernard of Clairvaux

Thank goodness this election stuff is about over. Then what, a couple of months before we start it all over again? Seriously....

...but... McCain... has a long record of experience...patriotic...more moderate in the Conservative movement...Obama... a definite catalyst with ability to galvanize people... fresh approach at this level of politics....

I have wavered for a while now, but have remained somewhat right leaning in my thinking in regards to this election. Since the first George Bush, I have had a moderate conservative way of thinking. I supported Bill Clinton, then I supported the current Bush for election then re-election. I think some people mistakenly take me as a neocon, while others assume I am a member of Operation Push. i am none of those things... but here is a sampling of what I believe, for what its worth...

I believe it is a Woman's right to choose (up to a point)

I believe that you should be a citizen of this country and pay taxes to use the infrastructure (schools, hospitals, banking system, etc.)

I believe that it was the right response to go after the people (and the supporters) who attacked us on 911

I believe that the US got sidetracked by greed in pursuing the previous response

I believe that Lee Harvey Oswald was part of a large, covert conspiracy to kill JFK

I believe that my money that i work for should not be taken away and given to people who have not worked hard for it. I will decide who I want to assist. Not someone else. If I want to keep every single penny of my money, that should be my right. Period.

I believe that the same people who jumped up and down and accused the Republicans of altering voting 4 and 8 years ago are doing the exact same thing now.

I believe that we are not alone

I believe that the overwhelming majority of the media has slanted the entire coverage of this election process to elect who they want to elect.

In addition, I believe that the coverage of the polling is slanted only to those polls that show Obama ahead by larger margins. Coverage rarely mentions the slim leads in the most respected polls.

I believe that education should be a top priority of our society.

I believe that peanut butter and jelly should be mixed very carefully, with about 2 parts peanut butter to 1/2 part jelly being about right.

I believe that America as a whole is ready to elect a Black man or a Woman as President

I believe that racism and sexism are still a huge problem in this country, and that problem may unfortunately play a factor in this election

However, for me race is not a factor at the bottom line. Obama getting to this point is a fact that I can be proud of in some form. But honesty must tell you that he got to this point because he is black. If he was white, he would quite possibly not even be a Senator. But he has used the opportunities given him and made the best of them, and he is to be applauded for his acheivements in so short a time. However, i cannot support the somewhat far left thinking that he seems to support. Be it the past associations that he seems to always have an excuse for to the more recent comments about redistribution or spreading the wealth. His past comments that are record seem to show support for a socialist way of thinking. While I certainly am not in the super rich, rich, wealthy, well off, or financially set for life category I am still ahead of the paycheck to paycheck category...albeit not by much. And even then, i do not want other peoples money. yes...that stimulus check helped buy an extra tank of gas, but the more you squeeze the people supplying the goods, the more that same tax break or credit is simply going to get eaten up by the increase in costs/price handed down to me by the taxed. And where is Obama going to get all this money for all these entitlements? where is it going to come from? i keep hearing that redistribution thing over and over. Well, we just bailed out the banking stuff...there went a whole heap of programs and other promises by Obama. Then how is he going to keep these promises? by taking from those who have money and giving to those who dont even pay taxes? how is this going to work, let alone even fair?

While McCain certainly has his drawbacks... somewhat ill-tempered, somewhat old, somewhat well... a bunch of things... he doesnt scare me with the radical associations and changes that are potentially out there with Obama (and more importantly..Pelosi). Some people call it the smell test, and when I see Obama at this point in time, I see an untested politician who we are taking about giving the keys to, who has shown bad judgement at times in the past, and who hasnt really done ANYTHING of note at this level, other than run for President. I will say again...McCain has his shortcomings, but I sense that his Change is a better type of change that we need...will McCain keep some Bush things in play?...Yes...will he change some things and end some things...Yes. Does he have experience at this level working? Yes.

Now all this being rambled on, Obama is still playing with the lead. The polls are all over the place, with some giving him a 10-15 point lead (oh, NBC/MSNBC shout about this nonstop...) to some like Gallop and Rasmussen citing a 3 point lead with likely voters (never hear about these polls, do you?) Lets see...the last two elections had both Gore and Kerry winning the same way with the polling data going into election day, where Bush squeaked it out by a 200-300 thousand votes or so. Will the ACORN stuff get Obama over the top in a similar type of tally? we shall see...

So... I am choosing to go with the proven experience and a more temperate mode of change of McCain versus untested and unknown experience and ideas (Do we REALLY know if he is as radical as his friends are or is he just using them to get to the top?) for change from Obama that reek of a socialist society and government acting as a nanny for us all. For me, it has nothing to do with his skin color. It has to do with his lack of record, as well as his on the record statements for what he believes in.

Maybe Obama gets elected and is the person he has led us to believe he is. If he does, I will be happy. For now, he has not met my bar. I have not bought in. I will cast my vote for McCain