O'BRYAN: Why I voted for Obama

I voted for Obama not because I'm a Democrat (I am), or because I think he's the best man for the job (I do). I voted for Obama because he is a thoughtful man of ideas who addresses complicated questions with complicated answers, because he doesn't go for the 10-word sound-byte, because he doesn't treat us like fools. He's the first candidate in my political consciousness who has challenged me to hope for what this country could be, who, in the words of the late Hunter S. Thompson, "understands what a fantastic monument to all the best instincts of the human race this country might have been, if we could have kept it out of the hands of greedy little hustlers like _________." McCain is not Bush, but he's no different from anyone else: diagnose an obvious problem, give us a list of what he would do, make a joke about NASCAR or steel mills or wherever he is that day, and shout "change" until the word loses all meaning. Obama is the first politician who has ever asked me to believe, and I want to, and so do legions of other young people who reached political maturity just in time for the Idiot Son to take the reins. His inexperience is a gamble, yes, but it's a calculated gamble, because even if an Obama Presidency isn't successful, I would take a chance on Obama 100 times before I'd vote for McCain once.

-- Jason O'Bryan 

FULL COVERAGE: www.thethephoenix.com/election2008