Presidential Elections

Let me preface this short commentary by announcing Ron Paul was the candidate I would vote for in November if the GOP had the wisdom and courage to nominate him. He is the only Republican I would vote for.

In 1992, I worked tirelessly and voted for Ross Perot. In 1996, I wrote in Bill Bennet for president. In 2000, I voted a straight Libertarian ballot. The 2004 election was crucial and I didn't want to squander my vote so I held my nose and voted for John Kerry.

The last Republican Party endorsed candidate I voted for in a presidential election was Ronald Reagan. Before the gipper, Richard Nixon got my vote. I voted for both in two elections.

I never could bring myself to vote for George Bush the Senior. He and his family profited from the savings and loan debacle. He was a bigger crook than Tricky Dick. George the Junior didn't get my vote in 2000 or 2004, not because he is a crook but when he was Governor of Texas he showed himself to be a complete nincompoop. In 2004, a combination of his total ineptness and extreme lack of veracity that turned me off.

This year, for the second time in my life, I intend to vote for a Democrat. I cannot stand the idea of anything ressembling four more years of Junior. Since John McCain has been the president's lackey, senate-vote-wise, for the past eight years, why would I expect him to change?

And our country desperately needs change. Bush's stupid war in Iraq has demoralized and nearly decimated our army, an army I proudly served in from 1968 to 1988.

I protested the Iraq War before Bush even began it, by marching in an anti-war parade in San Antonio in early 2003. After he started his war and my former comrades started coming home in body bags, I continued to protest it through letters to editors, members of Congress and the president himself.

If we had stayed the course in Afghanistan, kept our eye on the prize, instead of going to war with Iraq, the number of terrorists would have greatly decreased. Instead, Bush created a cause celeb for every freedom hater on the globe and turned a country into one big training ground for terrorists. One result of the Iraq War is now we have more anti-American terrorists in the world than we had before 9/11.

It's bad enough that Bush started an unprovoked war with his dubious pre-emptive strike against Iraq, he lied, more than once, about his justification. The Iraq War is the single biggest disaster ever perpetrated by a United States president.

Now I don't know if Barak Obama will make a good president, but its a good bet he will be a damned sight better than the yahoo who has held the office for the past seven years and eight plus months. That's why he is getting my vote.