Too long for a reply, I guess...

[laxmi13]

I was already planning to vote McCain but started worrying about who he might pick as his VP seeing as how I'm not Republican.. Then after Palin's speech, I felt comfortable with her as the pick. She made the defensive speech I felt she needed to pick. I am currently one of the people very irritated with the liberal media

Comments

[fruitbane]

I will have to respectfully state that I think you have many misconceptions about McCain and things like taxes. That is to say, I disagree with you on a number of points and darnit I'm right, so NYAH! ;)

I crafted a really long response and LJ booted it because it was over 9000 characters and comments are limited to 4300. Poop. Looks like I will have to transform it into a post for my journal.

[isobelfx]

I gotta say- I pretty much agree with everything your friend fruitbane had to say in her post...

[laxmi13]

his post :-)

[isobelfx]

His post, indeed. Sorry, Fruitbane.

[foopy]

In regards to energy, Obama is willing to go into nuclear energy, as he mentioned both on his interview with Bill O'Reilly and his New Energy for America plan; the latter specifically claims "However, before an expansion of nuclear power is considered, key issues must be addressed including: security of nuclear fuel and waste, waste storage, and proliferation."

Obama's stance on Iraq and interventionism in general is a bit confusing to me right now; I found the Reason article Obama's Wars particularly interesting:

Obama's advisers don't pretend that their candidate is moving very far from the legacy of Bill Clinton-a legacy of humanitarian interventionism that provided some of the moral and legal justifications for Iraq. The problems of this decade, in their view, came because the Bush administration looked at unilateral action as a first course of action and multilateralism as a patina, gathering allies after military decisions had already been made. That's the reverse of what Obama says he wants: multilateralism first and

[laxmi13]

I actually did watch one of the interviews where he acknowledged that nuclear plants would be feasible. But he, and democrats in general, make it seem like there are none in the US now and that France is taking a chance with their citizens and we'd have to make drastic fixes to make it safe for us. Which is ridiculous. Does it have to be safe? yes! Do we have to make sure it's in a secure location? yes! Is it a millions years before it becomes useful to us? no

[foopy]

I don't actually know much about the Iraq war because I've been fairly ignorant of current events for the past several years, but I was looking at the Wikipedia page for this Petraeus guy and I thought his quote from a BBC interview was interesting:

He said he did not know that he would ever use the word "victory": "This is not the sort of struggle where you take a hill, plant the flag and go home to a victory parade... it's not war with a simple slogan."

And in an NPR interview he defines victory as follows:

... he defines victory as "an Iraq that is at peace with itself, at peace with its neighbors, that has a government that is representative of - and responsive to - its citizenry and is a contributing member of the global community."

Umm... I agree with that on a philosophical level... but practically speaking, can that happen anytime within, say, the next decade? Sounds like a pretty complex situation, though given Petraeus' stance I can understand why having a timetable doesn't make much sense.

[foopy]

In regards to taxes, I don't know much about McCain's tax plan, but Obama's has been repeatedly misrepresented by McCain's rhetoric according to FactCheck.org; at the very least, taxes will stay the same for anyone who makes under $200-250k per year, and my understanding is that taxes will actually go down for 80-95% of the population. Not that this necessarily addresses your claim that taxes suck, or that abolishing the income tax is the way to go... :)

[foopy]

Regarding Palin, I think that her recent interviews have revealed a lot about her; Kathleen Parker's Palin Problem article on The National Review is an even-handed disapproval from someone who really wanted to cheer on Palin (and originally did) but ultimately found her unsuitable to lead the country:

Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League