Sunday, September 21, 2008

Yappa Endorses Obama

All through the US election campaign I have been troubled by lack of qualifications to meet the real and severe challenges ahead. I think the US needs a tactician, a manager, someone who can troubleshoot the ongoing economic crises and lay the groundwork for new regulatory frameworks and agreements. There most likely is not going to be any money for bold new initiatives. The job of governing is going to be a difficult process of cutting funding and negotiating rescue operations.

I'm not at all sure that any of the four candidates (Obama, Biden, McCain or Palin) are qualified or ready to do this. The three senators haven't got any executive experience; they haven't even managed anything. The governor hasn't had enough executive experience to be much better (and doesn't have a good enough grasp of the facts and issues).

But during the last week, I think it has become clear that Obama is far, far more equipped than McCain to deal with the problems at hand. McCain's response to the financial crisis this week was shameful, calling on the firing of the chair of the SEC, pointing fingers, pandering and sounding hysterical. Obama was calm, reassuring; he waited till the Bush government had spoken; he said his team was working on a plan that would be released soon.

Furthermore, the most important ideological difference between McCain and Obama is that of "no more big government" and "free markets" vs accountability, transparency and effective regulations. It is clearly the time to stop the process of deregulation and start rebuilding safeguards. Even Wall Street admits that financial regulations are obsolete and need to be completely overhauled. Similar recent problems have shown the need for stronger regulations on corporations, consumer products, the environment, food safety, elections, and other areas. Having a president who is ideologically opposed to regulation is just not what is needed right now.

I like McCain and I wish him a happy retirement. But it is clear that Obama is by far the better choice for president.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yappa: I was one of the Obama supporters who sometimes nicely, sometimes desperately argued for Obama in your comments section during the primaries. A sincere welcome aboard and you couldn't be more right. Let's hope that other skeptics have been as concerned by McCain's (poor) response to this financial crisis as you have been.

PS are you the Yappa on the star comment section that is supportive of NDP MP Peggy Nash? If so, we are clearly more sympatico than I would have thought three months ago. :)

Yappa said...

Hi anonymous at 1:49 -

Yup, that was me. My take on Gerrard Kennedy is pretty well the same issue I had in the primaries with Obama - qualifications and ability to do the job. Except in Obama's case, I thought he should be VP for a few years before becoming president. With Kennedy, there are more serious issues with character and lack of education. I think he's more suited to being a spokesperson than being in government and I'd like to see him go back to that.

My suppport for Hillary had nothing to do with gender: I just believe that she would make the best president. But of the choices, I now think we'll be in a huge mess if McCain wins.