Decision 2008

I have resisted writing about the election because I don’t want this site to become a soapbox for my own individual political opinions. I’m also not affiliated with any particular party. As a matter of fact,  I am a centrist in a big way and I am not a big fan of the two party dominance that exists today.

As this election comes to a close I am happy to see that people have been paying more attention this time around. So many of the people I talk to lately, feel they were hood winked and lied to by the Bush administration. There seems to be a determination to not let it happen again.

Yet I am some what suppressed at the number of people I’ve talked to that have made their decision based on things other than the issues. Things that should have no place in helping determine who should be the leader of the free world for the next four years. This is not American Idol were you vote on some warm fuzzy feeling you get when you see and hear someone.

The decision of who should lead the country requires a higher degree of due diligence. It requires more than the color of the candidates skin. It requires more than the blind belief in campaign rhetoric. It requires more than listening to sound bits on the evening news or editorials in the local paper. It requires more than just listening to what your friends and family say. It requires more then a feeling about the candidates personality and whether or not a candidate is someone that you would be more inclined to sit an have a beer with.

Picking a president requires each and every person who has a vote, to carefully do their homework. To go to the website of each of the candidates. To carefully read and understand each of the candidates proposals and ask “how will this effect me and my family”. It requires carefully listening to each of the candidates when they speak. Not just once, not just twice, but every time they speak. Listening to what they say is consistent and again asking “how does will this effect me and my family”. It require filtering out the campaign rhetoric about what they say about each other and listening about what they say about you. That is what this is about, you.

So put away any prejudice, party affiliations, and resist your gut instincts and what others would want you to do.  Don’t lay claim to rumors and innuendo. If someone says something about a candidate, than make them prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt.  Open your eyes and open your ears and do your homework. And if you can honestly say that you  came to the best decision given all the facts then you may just get a chance to do this in another four years.