by Laila Khan

Created on: November 08, 2008   Last Updated: November 24, 2008

If I had been asked how I felt about John McCain two years ago, I would have had mostly positive things to say. While I did not agree with many of his positions, I respected him and his actions. This is no longer the case. During the presidential campaign, I was turned farther and farther away from John McCain.

His policies in general provided me with many reasons to vote against him. First, I disagree with his policy on Iraq. I believe that the war was misguided and badly planned from the beginning. Even the Iraqi government agrees that a timetable for withdrawal is necessary. The harms have simply outweighed any possible benefit.

McCain's plan for health care insurance seems equally misguided. His plan would cause many to lose their current health insurance, while only providing $5,000 to families for health insurance. Current health insurance costs much more than $5,000.

McCain's hatchet-method for dealing with an economic crisis is frightening. A almost-complete spending freeze with something as delicate as our nation's economy is more than just a bad idea, it is just plain harmful.

The fourth reason concerns a moral issue: abortion. Many people disagree with abortion for moral or religious reasons. But neither they nor the government has the right to decide for a woman what she can do with her own body.

Another frightening reason is the lack of diplomacy that McCain seems to support. His "Bomb Iran" song showed his disregard for diplomacy and support of preemptive warfare.

McCain's support of the Bush administration's policies on homeland security show disregard for civil rights and penchant for more governmental control. While he claims to support limited governmental interference, he supported the drastic increase in government that came with the Bush administration.

The continuance of failed economic policies that reward the rich and ignore the poor is yet another reason why I voted against McCain. Tax breaks for those in the top tax brackets only benefit those few at the top. The country is harmed in the long run.

The eight reason concerns the obvious change in McCain's partisan politics. McCain originally showed his ability to compromise and stand against his own party. However, when he began his campaign, he moved farther to the right and simply supported everything his party stood for, whether he previously agreed with it or not. He even wavered when his party began to support certain torture practices, even though he stood completely against it beforehand due to his own experience as a POW. A politician that changes his own positions in order to gain election can not be trusted as president.

McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as his Vice-President showed a lack of judgement on his part. Palin created many headlines, and did reenergize the base, but was not even remotely qualified for the position. Her policies were even more frightening than McCain's. On top of her extremely conservative ideals, she seemed completely incompetant at many times during the campaign. She also showed that her style of politics involved more hate and anger than real substance.

This leads to my last reason for voting against McCain. McCain ran the dirtiest campaign that I have every heard of. When he began to see the polls turning against him, he got desperate and simply attacked Obama, instead of attacking Obama's policies. He insulted Obama and made many unwarranted claims. While politics can be dirty, a campaign should never be centered around attacking the opponent personally.

All of these reasons combined to make John McCain a candidate that I could never vote for.

Learn more about this author, Laila Khan.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.