CURRAN: Why I'm voting for Obama

Though I would’ve lent my full support to Hillary Clinton, had she become the Democratic presidential nominee, I voted for Barack Obama in the primaries - and am voting for him today - because I think that a President who looks out for the women of this country need not necessarily be a woman. The George W. Bush administration has wrought eight years worth of harsh, abstinence-only, anti-choice regime on American women. More kids are having sex. The teen pregnancy rate is up for the first time since 1991. Women are still getting paid less than men, but we’re paying more for health insurance.

I’m not clinging to the idealistic notion that Obama will swoop in with a magic wand, and <poof!> magically change all of this. But I do know that he is pro-choice, supports sex education (but not for kindergarteners, thank you very much), and was raised by strong, independent women (he’s also married to one!). I also know that McCain has voted against funding teen-pregnancy-prevention programs and family planning programs. Oh, and he doesn’t think health insurance should cover birth control for women (and, as any underpaid woman in her 20’s knows, birth control pills are expensive), but he does think that Medicaid should cover Viagra for men.

That’s just not right, and it’s not looking out for the ladies.

FULL COVERAGE: www.thethephoenix.com/election2008