I wanted to try and steer away from issues such as politics and the war(aren't they the same thing?) in my blog because they are controversial and could upset the 3 people that actually read my blog. You know what I just realized my wife is not one of those 3 people that read this blog...kind of sad. But anyways I wanted to avoid those issues because they can upset people but more than that I really don't know anything about them. I am extremely uninformed when it comes to political issues such as taxes, health care, foreign policy and the war but that doesn't mean I dont have an opinion and please forgive me if I say something that isn't true and completely inaccurate this isn't a research paper its my opinion and most of my info comes from Stephen Colbert so sometimes I wonder how accurate it actually is. It feels like this election is just a lot more popular. That being involved in politics is just the latest trend and you're not cool if you don't know whats going on in the White house and just like every popular trend that would make me instantly cool and fulfill all my wildest dreams of being socially accepted by my peers I just watched the ship sail away and the minute I finally catch up and all of a sudden when I am ready to view my political views and show to all my friends that I know a thing or two about what is going on everybody will become anarchists and hate the government and refuse to even waste their time listening to what they are saying.

Personally I don't think that who the President is really matters. I pretty much think it's the guys behind them that are making all their decisions and they are just the face of those decisions. I want a President that isn't going to embarrass me when he gets on television and talks(President Bush) and/or sleep with Monica Lewinsky and then lie about it. I want a President who is going to help our relationships with other countries and Mccain obviously has a ton of experience with Foreign Policy but I think Obama could represent our country with class and is extremely well-spoken and would do great with Foreign affairs just because the guy knows how to pretty up the package or put the lipstick on the pig. BOOM!!

My opinion on Barack Obama:

It seems like to me that Obama campaign slogan should be: "Hey if you hated how our government has done things for the past 8 years vote for me" Wasn't that basically John Kerry's political stance? "Hey if you hate George Bush vote for me." "Change we can believe in" seems to be his preferred slogan but I really wonder what changes he is actually going to make. He talks about free health care and it seems like a good idea I certainly can't afford health care so"Yay for Free Healthcare" but I don't think that if he wins the Presidential Election he will even be able to change that anyways and I am not entirely convinced that it would be a good idea if he did. He also mentioned pulling the troops out of the Middle East in what 18 months but then didn't he go to the Middle East and realized that probably wouldn't be the best idea?

This whole idea of Barack Obama being too green to be a good President is a bunch of crap studies have shown that when a President has been involved in politics too long they are actually crappy politicians i.e George Bush, Richard Nixon and the ones with less experience i.e John F. Kennedy, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter all proved to be great Presidents so this whole Barack Obama being too green doesnt make much sense. Although I am glad that the media is taking the high road and they are saying that he shouldn't be President because he is 'green' instead of saying that he shouldn't be President because he is black.

Also whats the media accusing him of being an Elitist. Shouldn't our President be an elitist? I am going to rip off some of John Stewart's material here but people do realize that if Barack Obama does a good job then they put his face on A MOUNTAIN! I want my president to be an Elitist I want him to be embarrassingly better than everybody else. I don't want a President that thinks he could be a good President in a weird sort of way if everything works out. That's stupid.

There just seems to be too many questions and concerns I have about the changes that Obama would be making and I really doubt that even if he is president that he will even be able to make the changes. The whole Church thing with his preacher and all that jazz bothers me and while I believe that there is nothing wrong with Islam and I have met and know some very outstanding Muslims. So help me it does bother me a little bit that he once was a Muslim and it bothers me even more that he tried to cover it up. Ya know that old saying that goes something like it "being easier to deal with the enemy if you know what it is" or something like that well I know exactly what I would be getting out of Senator John Mccain and I am comfortable with it I don't know what I will be getting out of Obama and that kind of scares me and that's why I have been leaning towards voting for John Mcain.

My Opinion on John Mccain:
I really don't have much of an opinion on John Mccain and I think that is why he is going to lose the election he just hasn't got enough media exposure and/or attention as Obama. Mccain's campaign manager really sucked. I just don't know anything bad or good about him. He looks awkward and stiff like he is on the verge of doing "the robot" I think its cool and all that he was a POW but I am getting a little sick of how he feels the need to mention it every three sentences. I think his idea of the 5,000 dollar tax refund is stupid and like Obama health care idea won't even happen once they get to the White House.

I guess my biggest pet peeve about John Mccain is that he isn't funny and not fun to make fun of. In all honesty what really matters to me is what President can the talk show hosts make fun of the most. Clinton gave us great material because of "blowgate" and George W. Bush jokes were classic and he provided more material for the late night television that any other President ever has and ever will. But the only thing we can make fun of Mccain about is his age. That's lame. Come on Johnny ya gotta give us something. Your killing me.

I guess the reason that I am going to end up voting for John Mccain is that I don't know have any problems with him I really can't think of anything that really bugs me about him and as I mention there are just things that bug me about Obama. I think at the end of the day that I am going to vote for John Mccain but I think Obama is going to win this election and I think that I will be "ok" with that.

Ok and now on to the big issue: The War

First off I am going to start off by saying that I know absolutely nothing about what is going on over in the middle east. I also hate it how we are still discussing whether or not we should of even invaded Iraq in the first place. It's a dead issue. We are there whether it was the right or wrong decision to make and the only thing worth discussing now is what should we do NOW that we are there.

I will get to my opinion on the whole War in Iraq in a minute We are going to compare this to sports. Trust me it will make sense eventually. If you wanted to know about how the Lakers game went down there are several ways you could go about this. You can get it from several different viewpoints and depending on which viewpoint you had would determine your opinion of the game.
VIEWPOINT ONE: THE MEDIA

The Lakers played last night and it wasn't on TV so all I could do was watch the highlights of the game on Sportscenter and look at the boxscore. I got a very small idea of how they did. I know they lost and that Vladimir Radmonovic was the leading scorer and Al Thornton played very well. I know because Sportscenter told me. I only saw the highlights that they decided to show me and I know very little about the game. So I got my information from the media and I only know what they decided to tell me and I only saw about 45 seconds of the game. So I have very little knowledge of what happened in the game.

VIEWPOINT 2: WATCHED THE GAME LIVE ON TELEVISION

This way I am going to get to watch the whole game live on television and I will have a better understanding of the game since I know what happened from tip-off to the final buzzer. But still I only get to see what that particular television station decided to show me. I am missing out on some very fundamental aspects of the game that can't accurately be portrayed by sitting on my couch watching the game.

VIEWPOINT 3: WATCHED THE GAME IN PERSON

This is probably the best way for me to get the most information. I am at the game. I can see everything. I can form my own opinions that are not going to be swayed by the media. I can see the emotions on the players faces. I can see what the camera isn't showing the people sitting at home watching on television. Unfortunately very few people have this option of getting this close to the game we can't all afford courtside seats to the Lakers game. If I was not able to attend the game I know that I would get a much better recap and understanding of the game from Jack than I would from whatever anchor is on ESPn but yet even then it would be purely based on what Jack Nicholson thought about the game and my opinion would be based on what Jack told me.
VIEWPOINT 4: PLAYED IN THE GAME

Ok I don't play for the Los Angeles Lakers and very few people play in the NBA at all so this viewpoint is very rare but it is the best viewpoint. Kobe knows exactly why they lost last night to the Clippers. He knows everything about the game. The 24 players who suited up and maybe the coaches know more about the game than any one else in the arena and obviously anybody watching the game or highlights. They experienced it first hand and if I wanted to know about the game I cannot think of a better person to ask than Kobe or any of the other players in the game. I do realize that Kobe would never admit that they lost because he had a bad game or he shot the ball too many times, but if he was completely honest about the game no body can dispute that he would be the man to go to if you wanted the truth about the game went down.

That's how I feel about this whole situation in Iraq. We know so very little about what is going on. The majority of the world gets their opinion from "Viewpoint 1: The Media" and that's by far the most limited and inaccurate viewpoint out there and to base your opinion on that to me it's irresponsible and ignorant. You may argue that you are basing your opinion on facts and that the media cannot contort the billions of dollars that we have spent on this war or all the innocent people that have died. Your right about that but if that is all your basing your opinion on then you are missing out on the big picture all your really doing is reading the boxscore from the basketball game and your not seeing all the things that don't show up on that boxscore.

Why do you think Obama got so much flack from John Mccain for declaring his stance on the war before he even went to Iraq? He was probably getting his information from the Jack Nicholson of the War in the middle east and when he went there and experienced it for himself his opinion changed. I am not enlisted in the military and I have never been to Iraq so I feel that I really can't state my opinion on it since I know so little about it and I think if people were honest with them self they would be in the same boat with me. I will say this every soldier I have talked to who has returned from the middle east have all said that whatever they are doing over there is a very good thing and they are helping the people and it is not a waste of time or money. Are they being too prideful to admit that what they are doing is wrong? Maybe, but I still value their opinion and give them more validity in their view of the war than anyone else and from what I have heard from them is that they are doing a great job down there and need to stay to finish it.