I’m a young voter square in a key demographic that Senator Obama is banking on for the fall, and yet I’m teetering on the fence. Granted, I’m leaning toward Obama, but that sway is a tenuous one. At the visceral level, watching Obama on TV is like falling in love: the butterflies, incessant thoughts, and glee accompanying every encounter. But I am troubled by what is below the surface. The buzzwords that he fills his public image with—change, hope, a new way of governing—simply don’t speak to me whatsoever. I am not able to get clear take on the man. He seems to be the embodiment of the Democratic platform without a good plan to accomplish it.
For example, it should not come as a surprise to anyone that NASA is a key issue for my in this election season. What is Obama’s plan for NASA? To cut funding to it. But that’s not the disturbing aspect: he wants to cut funding to NASA specifically to enhance STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education. The distinct lack of logic here goes without explanation. It is akin to cutting funding to the NIH (National Institutes of Health) in order to get kids excited about medicine. The lack of thought in this one issue gives me pause to the man’s faculties because such logic is on the level of the current incumbant president.
Obama is relatively new to Washington and I fully expect him to rely heavily on the counsel of his advisors in making policy. He simply does not have the track record to have built a strong intuition in such a short span of time. And I understand this. I don’t expect the next president to know it all, but I do expect him to have wisdom enough to surround himself with the right people. And if this is the kind of advice I can look forward to for the next four years, forget it. 8 years of that is enough.
I won’t vote for Obama just because he’s not a Republican. I think voting for a candidate because they’re red or blue is about as sound as not voting for a candidate because of their party affiliation. Obama has a lot more depth to show me this fall–I expect to be dazzled on every level. And I don’t think that’s asking too much—it’s just asking for what he purports to be.
