By Terry Massey
For Weekly Surge
Call it apathy. Or maybe you don't want to be called for jury duty. Or perhaps you're just plain lazy.
Whatever the reasons, non-voting citizens, you are running out of excuses and time for sitting out of the upcoming presidential election, especially with U.S. Senators John McCain and Barack Obama on the ballot.
For all the rationale for not voting in the past, some of it valid, this political season provides voters with two very viable and distinct choices that nullify the naysayers' sob stories from recent election years.
"There are a large number of differences between the two, both in their politics and personalities," said Coastal Carolina University executive vice president and political analyst Edgar Dyer. "McCain is more experienced than Obama, but both are well qualified to be president. The key is their differences."
With nine days left to register in time to vote in the Nov. 4 election, it's important for would-be voters to know about the two candidates, their policies and exactly how much is at stake in this presidential election. Consider this a primer heading into the first head-to-head presidential debate between Obama and McCain set for 9 p.m. Friday at the University of Mississippi (although at press time McCain was trying to postpone the event in light of the government's financial bailout plan).
A tale of two candidates
Senators Barack Obama and John McCain
You could randomly throw two darts into a phone book and probably not find two people with more contrasting life experiences than McCain and Obama, yet both have lived uniquely American lives.
OK, so by now we all know the superficial differences between McCain and Obama, right? Maybe not.
Obama is the first black presidential nominee, right? Sorta. His father was black and from Kenya; his mother was white.
"I don't see why people are calling Obama the first black candidate anymore than saying Tiger Woods is a black golfer," Dyer said. "They are multi-racial, but I don't see why one race can claim them over another. I totally discount the race issue as being a factor in the election. I think it's been overblown."
So how about this one: Which candidate was born outside the U.S.? Obama, right? Wrong again. Most would likely guess Obama based on his diverse heritage, and he did in fact live in Indonesia for four years as a child. But the answer is McCain, who was born in the U.S.-controlled Panama Canal Zone.
Here's another: The 25-year age difference between McCain (72) and Obama (47) is the greatest on any two-party ticket, right? Actually this one is true, edging the 23-year margin between Clinton-Dole in 1996.
Why is this important? It's not, although Obama is credited with bringing more new voters to the fold, especially among the 18-29 set. But polls suggest generation.com voters are turning out for both sides.
"The proposition that `Young People Don't Vote' has finally been proven wrong,'' said Heather Smith, executive director of Rock the Vote, a group that enlists the 18-29 set to vote. "We have propelled candidates to victory in both parties and reinvigorated our democracy with millions of new young voters this primary season. We are now poised to be decisive in choosing the winner in November.''
OK, so maybe more young voters do tend to favor Obama, who plays basketball and listens to Jay-Z on his iPod, in terms of style points, but does that really translate into more votes? Not necessarily, according to a recent Associated Press story entitled: "Young voters: Obama cooler than McCain."
"He's not running for class president here,'' said Maurice Bonamigo, a Chicago-based conservative political strategist who points out that Ronald Reagan got 59 percent of the young vote in 1984 by playing the grandfather card. "It's not a popularity contest. He's running for leader of the free world."
And that's the bottom line. For all the talk of race, religion, age and who's more American, the outcome of the election will boil down to two things: Who they are and what they believe in. Let's look at both.
Raising McCain
The son and the grandson of U.S. Navy admirals, McCain moved between military bases for most of his childhood before graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy (fifth from last in his class) in 1958. He was a bit of a maverick even then, falling short of the lofty standards set by his father and grandfather.
After graduating from Navy flight school, McCain volunteered for risky bombing missions in Vietnam. McCain's plane was shot down and he was captured and imprisoned at the infamous "Hanoi Hilton."
When his captors learned he was the son of a high-ranking military commander, he was repeatedly offered release but chose to follow the military code of conduct and remained with his fellow prisoners. McCain spent three of those five-and-a-half years in solitary confinement and was repeatedly beaten and tortured during his captivity before finally being released with his fellow POWs in 1973. He earned all the top military honors, but the untreated injuries from his crash and torture prevented him from being a pilot.
After getting his first taste of politics by serving as a liaison between the Navy and the Senate, McCain retired from military service, married his second and current wife, Cindy Hensely, and moved to Arizona, where he worked as a public relations representative for her father's beer distributorship.
The political contacts he made through that job combined with his war record led McCain to run for and win his first election bid to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982. Four years later he won the Senate seat vacated by ultra-conservative figure and former presidential candidate Barry Goldwater.
Despite his strong, conservative beliefs, McCain has been known as a free-thinker who isn't afraid to cross party lines when it comes to an issue in which he disagrees. He has been called a "maverick'' through the years and angered fellow Republicans by breaking ranks over issues including immigration and gay marriage.
All politics aside, McCain is a real American hero and a pragmatist inside the party-divided Beltway. In some years he might be the perfect presidential candidate... if he wasn't also running against one.
Obama's drama
While McCain was preparing to ship off to Vietnam, Obama was born the son of a Kenyan goat herder in Honolulu in 1961. His mother was an anthropology student from Kansas when she met classmate Barack Obama Sr. and their interracial marriage was taboo at the time, even in multi-cultural Hawaii.
They split up when Obama, Jr. was two-years-old and he began to live a life as diverse as his heritage. His mother remarried an Indonesian man and the family moved to Jakarta when Obama, Jr. was six-years-old. He attended school there until moving back to Hawaii to
live with his maternal grandparents and attend the famed Ponahou School.
As one of only three African-American students, he quickly learned about the stigma of being multi-racial. He also admits to using drugs and alcohol during his high school years, not unusual for teens in the 1970s.
After graduating with a degree in political science from Columbia University in 1983, Obama went to work in the public sector. He later moved to Chicago and worked as a community organizer for low-income residents of public housing. Two events around this time helped him find his higher calling. After his father's death in a car accident in 1982 (Obama had seen him only once since the divorce) he visited his ancestral home in Kenya and got in touch with his roots. And after being raised in a non-religious home, Obama joined the Trinity United Church of Christ and returned to the U.S. to enroll in Harvard Law School, where he was elected the first African-American editor of the Harvard Law Review in 1990 and graduated magnum cum laude in 1991. Obama returned to Chicago to work as a civil rights lawyer.
It was at this time that he met his wife, Michelle, while they were the only African-Americans working in a law firm. They were married shortly after and shortly, two daughters and his political career were born.
Obama was elected to the Illinois State Senate in 1996, and after losing his bid for the U.S. Senate in 2000, he made a national name for himself for being an outspoken critic of President George W. Bush's post-9/11 policy to invade Iraq, saying he used the terror attacks as an excuse to pursue his own agenda.
As public opinion began to sway against the war, Obama became a focal figure of the anti-war crowd. He came to prominence on a national stage in July 2004 when he delivered the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention Obama.He was elected to the Senate in 2004 and almost immediately was considered a potential presidential candidate for 2008. Although a long shot, Obama battled past Democratic front-runners Hillary Clinton and John Edwards with a grassroots campaign that brought disenfranchised Democrats back into the fold.
A tale of the tape
Of course, the election is supposed to be less about personalities and more about their positions on the issues, and there are plenty of differences between the two candidates to highlight this campaign. In fact, many liken it to the 1960 election between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon as far as ideals.
Because of McCain's maverick label, there are some issues they surprisingly see eye-to- eye on, such as global warming, free trade and gay marriage. But on most issues, such as abortion, gun control and offshore drilling, they are predictably on opposite sides of the aisle, split along traditional party lines.
"In a lot of ways it's nothing more than a traditional Democrat and a middle-of-the-road Republican,'' Dyer said. "It just so happens that this year there are a lot of important issues they disagree on - the economy, health care, gas prices, conflict in Mideast. Hopefully those are the issues that will decide it.''
Here's where the two candidates stand on the most pressing and important issues to most Americans:
Economy: McCain has uttered the "no new taxes'' pledge made famous by George Bush Sr., and has changed his mind about Bush Jr.'s stimulus package - initially calling the tax cuts irresponsible and now calling to make them permanent. He also has proposed cutting the corporate tax rate to 25 percent. Obama proposes raising income taxes and the capital gains tax on only the wealthiest Americans, as well as the corporate tax, and plans to cut taxes for lower and middle classes.
Energy: McCain is an outspoken proponent of allowing offshore drilling after Bush, Jr. recently lifted the ban in an effort help the country become independent of foreign oil. Obama is a critic of the policy, arguing the additional fuel would not be enough to compensate for the damage done to the environment and coastline and pointing out that it would be at least 10 years before a drop of new oil could be produced. He calls for energy rebates paid for by oil companies and more conservation, a plan which McCain joked calls for everyone to check the air in their tires.
Health care: Although steering clear of the "universal coverage'' sought by most Democrats, McCain supports refundable tax credits ($2,500 per individual, $5,000 per family) to make insurance more affordable. Obama calls for mandatory coverage for children while giving adults better plans through their employers, similar to the packages available to federal workers.
Iraq: McCain was a supporter of the war from the start but has been critical of the current administration's handling of the campaign. He opposes troop withdrawals and believes the current "surge" (the increase of troops, not this publication you're reading) policy is working. Obama was opposed to the war from the start and has called for an immediate withdrawal of troops. If elected, he plans for a complete removal of troops by 2009, but hopes to strengthen the U.S. presence in Afghanistan, the country he says should be the real target for the war on terror.
Voting rights
You've heard the excuses before, perhaps even uttered them yourself over frustration at the system:
"It doesn't matter who I vote for,'' says Penelope Fingerpointer. "They're all the same - crooked.''
"These are our choices?'' asks Henry Headburier. "Surely there are two better candidates than these."
"My vote doesn't make a difference," says Bob Buttsitter. "I'm just one voter among millions."
Those arguments won't fly in 2008, not with the clear-cut and well-qualified candidates on the closely contested ballot. You can call McCain and Obama lots of different things, but similar isn't one of them.
"It's as clear a choice as in more than a generation,"said Doug Schoen, a Democratic consultant and former adviser to Bill Clinton. "You've got two very different views of the world presented."
While third-party pariah Ralph Nader often described the contested 2000 election as a choice between Bore and Gush, that one-liner won't work with McCain and Obama, neither politically nor poetically.
So the choices are yours, not just McCain or Obama, but also whether or not to get out and vote at all.
"People should register to vote because there are elections other than presidential to vote for this time," Dyer said. "State offices on the ballot, the entire General Assembly is up for re-election, congressional offices, (and) referendums. Even if you don't have a preference for president, there are lots of other reasons to vote.''
But the main one is to exercise the freedoms afforded you that aren't in other countries. Just ask our friends in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and just 90 miles south in Cuba who they're voting for. If that's not enough, consider these quotes from three great Americans, which hold more water than the earlier fictional ones:
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"Americans are the first people whom Heaven has favored with an opportunity of deliberating upon and choosing the forms of government under which they should live.''
-John Jay,
President of the First Continental Congress
"Should things go wrong at any time, the people will set them to rights by the peaceable exercise of their elective rights.''
-U.S. President Thomas Jefferson
"Vote or Die!'' ''
-Multi-talented and multi-monikered star
Sean "P. Diddy" Combs