by Chris Moore

Created on: November 08, 2008   Last Updated: December 04, 2011

Living in ultra-red Texas, I knew my vote wouldn't lead to Barack Obama getting my state's 34 electoral votes. But I cast it anyway. I sent my personal message that John McCain, even with his long-term serving his country in uniform and Congress, is not the man we need in the White House. And I had numerous reasons why I didn't vote for McCain:

1. Bush Term III. McCain insisted that he wasn't the same as George W. Given that in 2000, Bush's campaign team suggested that McCain fathered an illegitimate minority child to sabotage his nomination bid, one would think he'd back away from the President. But instead, he voted alongside Bush 90 percent of the time during the past eight years. If you don't want guilt by association, do more to not associate yourself with the guilty party.

2. Sarah Palin. Putting some cute little hockey mom as your running mate won't win me over. Especially when she turns out to be an ultra-fundamentalist who likes hiring a bunch of buddies to key positions a lot like the guy about to leave office.

3. The endless war. The American people want us out of Iraq. The Iraqi people want us out of Iraq. The Iraqi government wants us out of Iraq. And McCain actually said we ought to stay there for another HUNDRED YEARS!

4. "Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran." We're already stretched too thin in Iraq and Afghanistan, and he wanted to declare war on another Middle Eastern nation? Can we say "Crusades?"

5. Offshore drilling. He continued pressing this as the way to immediately cure our fuel problem and that alternate fuels wouldn't. In truth, offshore drilling would take at least ten years to make any possible impact.

6. "The fundamentals of our economy are strong." I kept picturing a political cartoon in my head after hearing him repeat this. It portrayed a Roman city called "Economy" burning and McCain, dressed as Nero, fiddling and singing "The fundamentals are strong" to the tune of "The Farmer in the Dell."

7. Blank check to big business. McCain and Palin continued insisting more tax cuts to corporations are needed to create more jobs. You mean like the tax cuts we've given them for the past eight years, which they stuffed in their pockets while cutting jobs left and right?

8. It's the immigrant's fault. Admittedly, I heard this more from other right-wing pundits, but it's another reason we need the GOP out for a while. Remind me again how immigrants sorry, "illegal immigrants" cause more damage taking gutter-working jobs than outsourcing the actual skilled labor jobs to China?

9. Out of touch with the working/middle class. McCain forgetting how many houses he owns? Spending $150,000 on Palin's wardrobe? Not gonna work for someone in a $450-a-month apartment whose wardrobe mostly comes from Wal-Mart.

10. Change, change change. We need a new direction, plain and simple. And a 72-year-old who's been in Congress won't get it done.

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