politically outing myself

I expect to be thrown out of my extremely Republican family for this..but this is as good a forum as any to announce the fact that I am going to vote for Barack Obama for president. I will also be able to ascertain whether my family is actually reading my blog. There I said it. It is not that I don't like John McCain for any particular reason. I admire him for his service to our country and I am sure he is a good man. I don't so much like any political candidate who mentions Ronald Reagan, as if they are trying to ride on the coat tails of his popularity and I recently heard McCain describe himself as working as a foot soldier for Reagan. Big deal. Reagan was originally a democrat and held his democratic beliefs of small government even after he switched to republican. I haven't decided whether my decision has any thing to do with the fact that Obama is black. I think it is part of it, since when there was still a choice between him and Hillary, I was actually contemplating voting for her since I think it is high time that a woman ran things. And now that a woman is not in the running, I think a black man ranks right up there. Call it wanting to see something historical or call it wanting to see someone who might actually think about the working (middle) class and the working poor- one of which I am and the other constitutes half of the people I supervise and watch struggle. People who the "average" citizen thinks had choices...when in actuality they never had a chance. I want senior citizens who can afford all of their medicine and food. I also want the kids out of Iraq, because that is what they are and because they have parents, some of whom are my friends who tell me they cry every day and wait on pins and needles to see activity on their sons myspace page to know if he's alright. Yeah, I have a boy who is 13- maybe we can just institute the draft in 5 years. My sister is afraid my republican, town councilman grandfather would not approve of my decision. Well, he voted for Ross Perot because I, as a 14 year old thought that might be a good idea (I have no idea why). He also said he did so because no previous president had ever "made a nickels difference" so what could it hurt. If he were here today, maybe we'd have a good debate. On second thought, if I got to see him again, who I am voting for would be the last of what I would talk about with him. That is how unimportant debating politics is.....so let's not.