It saddens me to come on here and see all of you single-issue voters. I love pax rail just as much as everyone else here, but we cannot afford much of any of the "change" Mr. Obama talks about. So, he's all about Amtrak. That and providing crappy government health care to everyone are the only positions I know of his.
The Federal government should not be in the rail business, the airline business, or the road building business. They should be state responibilities at the very least. Instead if subsidizing all of these things, we should let the free market prevail. No more handouts to airlines, road builders, or rail. That being said, I realize the benefits of pax rail and would like to see it improved with a good plan and realistic transition. Maybe if Obama wouldn't have voted to refund the war in Iraq and re-up the Patriot Act we could afford to throw a bone to Amtrak. It would be nice if I didn't have to call my Chicago customers all winter to reschedule due to frozen brakes on the Hiawatha (happened again yesterday).
A vote for Obama is another step towards socialism. I hope you all like your nanny state here. You've done such a good job with Amtrak, I just cant wait to see how AmHealth works out.
This is coming from someone seriously considering relocating out of the US. I wont pay my taxes into a system of secret socialism, which is what you Dems and Republicans alike are turning this country into. If I am going to be part of a Marxist-like society I'll move to a country that at least admits it's true political leanings.
Mr. Obama's stance on Amtrak is but one of many things I like about the man. He is the least "political" politician I have seen in a long time. He is an incredibly intelligent man, and he is not afraid to change things for the better. Maybe you haven't been paying attention for the past few years, but the US is heading up **** creek without a paddle. I'm not talking about the war in Iraq, which is a problem in and of itself.
Pay attention to the economy. Several interesting things have happened. First of all, to my benefit, in the past 5 years the price of gold has almost quadrupled. Gold goes up that fast when people think the government is about to fail, because gold, whilst safe, is generally not as good an investment as US treasury bonds. If people pick gold over bonds... need I say more? Second, there has been a very distinct, and almost unprecedented "disconnect" over the past few years. The US economy is not leading the trends this time. The UK is in bad shape, but other than the UK, other countries are nowhere near our economic problems. This isn't a world recession. This is a US recession.
Our banking industry is teetering. The sub-prime mortgage crisis has put at least a half dozen banks on the brink of bankruptcy. One more major problem in the economy, and you are going to see Wachovia, GMAC, JPMorgan-Chase, Bank of America, and several others closing their doors. The US can NOT cover the FDIC burden if those banks fail at once. Our national debt has increased tremendously, to the point where foreigners are very weary about investing money in us.
All three US automakers are on the brink of bankruptcy, as well. Somebody is going to need to save them. Within ten years, Ford and GM are going to either be bought out or given aid by the government. If the above banking crisis occurs, the US Government will NOT be able to aide them. We are, most likely, going to lose control of our auto industry. Credit debt in this country has close to doubled since 2000.
We have a reliance on two forms of transportation (Airplanes and cars) that we can not afford, both monetarily and resource/environmentally.
Then we can go into the whole Bush disaster. Bush is not particularly responsible for most of the above. He could have acted quicker to counter some of the problems had Iraq not been the issue, but most likely anybody with Republican economic theories would have acted similarly and came out with similar results.
The war in Iraq and Bush's nonpareil ability to **** other world leaders off has resulted in a world that doesn't respect us, doesn't want to help us, and largely ignores us. The economic disconnect means that the world is not particularly concerned with our general well being much, either.
That being said, Amtrak, passenger rail, and mass-transportation are areas I am very passionate about. I value a transportation system like I have described before, and I want to see it implemented. To recap: a hub-and-spoke system comprising aircraft for long distance, overnight rail for medium distances, reigonal and commuter rail for shorter distances, light rail for intra town/city travel, and feet for moving from rail to destinations. As such, a candidates stance on Amtrak and public transit means a lot to me.
I don't vehemently hate any of the current candidates. I would most likely stay in the US and tolerate any of the three. Senator McCain disagrees with almost all of my economic positions- he is an economic conservative, similar to most Republicans. He also will never get my vote because of his constant heavy opposition of Amtrak and public transit. That being said, he is an honorable and honest man, and he is by far the best candidate the Republicans have fielded in 28 years.
Hillary Clinton is a decent candidate, as well. She has some good priorities, and the Clintons (as a pair) have shown a pretty good control for running this place. I am not confidant that a woman is capable of running a country- I think that women's different emotional structure might make for problems. Although, to be fair, women (Margaret Thatcher and Golda Meir come to mind) have ran countries with considerable dispatch, so I can't put too much weight on that. I despise her education policies with a passion. They run against every single education principle I stand for. If it was her against McCain, however, I'd vote for her. McCain's economic position will mean we might not get out of this intact.
Barack Obama is a fantastic candidate in my mind. He has little political experience, which in my opinion is his best feature. He wants change, and he is not afraid to pursue it. He is an incredibly intelligent human being. He is capable of making our countries dysfunctional system work. Maybe I could make a better president, I'm not sure. If he beats Hillary in the primaries, I am surely voting for him. If someone can repair our place in this world, and make our country work again, he can. If he can't, I don't think anyone can.
