Obama or McCain - Who would you vote for?

"Fishy, just curious, who would you vote for? Obama or McCain? ES"

ES,

To elaborate further in regards to your question -- but regarding a different issue, I will reply to you with this and use it for a future blog post:

A loaded question. And certainly not one where my opinion matters too much. But in regards to the issues, I believe that it is obvious that I am much more aligned with what Obama claims to stand for than McCain. That's clear. But with Senator McCain we know he is telling the American people the truth about Iraq. And that takes a lot of courage. Especially in this climate when the occupation of Iraq is so unpopular with so many American people. Whereas with Hilary and Obama they are both either totally ignorant of our reality there (which is frightening) or they are just flat-out lying to everyone as a way to win favor with the voters in their party.

Both are promising that "when elected president I promise you that our troops will be out of Iraq within 60 days..." or "six months..." which is just utter bollocks. Firstly, they cannot make promises like that because they have no idea what the situation in Iraq is going to be like by the time they get into office. It could be better. It could be worse. It is an absolutely ridiculous and ignorant promise to make. Especially in light of the cluster-fuck that our invasion has created over there.

The invasion of Iraq and ousting of Hussein created an open vacuum there -- to the point where it is now almost an open invitation to create chaos and breed more terror all over the world. Saddam had things under control. And now he doesn’t. And the US is going to need years and years and perhaps decades to bring things under control in that region. Senator McCain is smart enough and honest enough to speak this truth to the people, despite how unpopular that message might be.

Secondly, regardless of who we hire for this "job," "presidents" just don't have that kind of power to make those kind of decisions. Anyone who knows what's going on in America knows that. Those decisions are made from much higher up. They will never have that kind of power. To pull troops from an occupied country? Or to stop a war? No. They will either be told to make that decision or not. As has been the case since Eisenhower warned us in his final speech as president, "the United States is on the brink of losing control of its governance to a multi-national military-industrial complex." It's been sixty years since that speech and the days when "presidents" of "countries" could make those kind of decisions are long gone.

Thirdly, if anyone googles "color coded map of the world's oil supplies" they will clearly see why Iraq is essential to the United States of America. Besides the safety and security issues we face if we were to leave now for ourselves and our allies in that region, we also have to face the fact that as a very large country with 300 million people who use more of the world's oil than any other country in the world today -- a whopping 25% of it -- we absolutely need control over the oil that is sitting directly underneath that "country" if we are to maintain the lifestyle and the economy that we have here now.

If we think things are bad now - with the sinking economy, housing market collapse, and rising oil prices -- wait to see what happens if we "leave Iraq" like Hilary and Obama are recommending and Iran steps into Iraq backed by the very eager countries of Russia and China - who also need that oil. We will be at the mercy of them for the next twenty to thirty years and life as we know it today will be only a memory until we can foster our resources and get to figuring out how to really create true alternative energy sources. Saudi oil alone is not enough to sustain our population.

That is why despite his almost Orwellian rightwing agenda, one can at least admire McCain for his foresight and honesty regarding Iraq. He is right - we will be in Iraq for at least the next fifty years. Period. This is what I LIKE about John McCain. He is an honest man. He is also not an entirely partisan politician, which he has proven a few times. Obama we simply just don't know well enough yet to know where he stands. And I would say that if you listen to what he has openly admitted to everyone over the last six months, he himself has confessed the same idea. He understands his weaknesses. He is very well aware of his lack of experience and track record compared to someone like John McCain.

Just about everything else about Senator John McCain's stance on policies and "the issues" I unfortunately vehemently just happen to disagree with. He's a total "righty" and I'm neither right nor left but would just prefer whoever sits in that chair to be honest and not tell fairytales to people about things they know nothing about like "pulling our troops out of Iraq." When Obama speaks like that I seriously question his knowledge and understanding of the underlying issues, or I start to wonder if he isn't just "playing politics" just like the rest of them. At least McCain has the nerve to tell it like it is.

So right now, my vote is NEITHER -- until we learn more about both of them and see what these men are truly made of.



As an aside, I will add this: while in Iran this year I had the opportunity to attend an IAEA conference (International Atomic Energy Agency). I sat at a table and ate dinner and shared drinks and conversation for hours with heads of state and members of parliament from Indonesia, Pakistan, Bahrain, and Qatar. At my table. Just us. We talked for hours. Though I mostly just listened. (After all, I'm just a singer. And the whole time I had to keep asking myself "what the fuck am I doing here?")

Now remember we were in fucking TEHRAN. In IRAN. The United States was not even INVITED. Though over 30 other countries were. And this was a freaking IAEA conference! The topic of the two day discussion was "Iran's Nuclear Energy Program." Something that all of these other countries now back. And I will tell you this, as ominous and frightening as it may be to hear: the United States is just not a popular country right now. This was no secret that night. Everyone in the room was very open about how they feel about the United States of America now. They love our people. But they absolutely loath our government. And they have for some time now. Decades really.

It appeared that these men at various different levels of power in their respective countries' governments are just "waiting it out" as American troops tire out more and more in Iraq, and Iran becomes stronger and stronger and China and Russia become more and more interested in Iran and Iraq. It was almost as if there was this 'secret' floating around the room like a butterfly that everyone could clearly see except us few Americans who were there... that region of the world is just patiently waiting for the US to fuck up in one small way or another and Iran, China, Russia, and the rest of them are going to literally turn their backs on us and give us the finger. I must say that it was one of the most haunting and frightening nights of my entire life here on planet earth.

I left that mansion on a hill in Tehran that night shaken and scared. It took me weeks to get out of bed upon my return. This is something I haven't written about yet because I just don't know how to do it.... how to present it... I don't think the American people, let alone my few friends and fans, have any idea what is happening in regards to the reputation of the United States of America. I had no idea there was such strong anti-American-government sentiment in the world today. But boy did I experience it first-hand. And it wasn't coming from rock-throwing thugs dressed in rags in third-world countries. It was coming right out of the mouths of government officials of real world Nation-States who are sick to death of what they call "American imperialism and bullying."

I'm telling you, we either need to get the hell out of Iraq and make our apologies in order to try to save our reputation -- but before we do make sure we have some solid and binding contracts with Russia, China, and Iran in regards to oil, or we need to buckle down and realize we are going to be in Iraq for the long haul. Oil my friends is the new gold and it is much much much more valuable than anyone realizes yet. To all of us.