Brace Yourself

Obama is now the official nominee crowned by the media. (Although since he doesn’t have the pledged delegate supports he needs, it won’t really be official until the convention.) But, this new turn of events will focus the campaigns.

That means the general election is going into full swing. So “brace yourself.” Get ready for political ads to say candidate X voted for this horrible thing or voted against this really great thing. However, whenever you see such attacks you need to understand the nature of Congress.

In today’s Congress the House and Senate vote on omnibus bills, these really large “mega bills” that are hundreds of pages long. So the overall point of a bill may be something that the Congressman opposed such as welfare spending (if it was a Republican member of Congress), but on page 312 there was a section funding a hospital. Well near November expect to see the political ads condemning the Congressman for not supporting hospitals. (Just imagine the fun images a creative ad specialist could create.)

Both Obama and McCain are members of the Senate and have voting records that the candidates have already mentioned. (Obama mentions that McCain voted for the Iraq war; McCain mentioned some votes of Mr. Obama’s in his speech tonight, June 3.)

When you hear ads about this vote or that vote, do your homework. Read the newspaper, watch the news, go to sites like www.votesmart.org and find out for yourself. Don’t let the negative attacks convince you. Be an intelligent voter! The only reason these ads are still on TV is because they work. They work because you listen to them and other mud slinging. (Wait Obama is not a Muslim?)

It is important that you take the time to be a smart voter, because if you don’t know who or what you are voting for, well what’s the point? These campaigns to just get you to vote make me angry. I recently saw a T-Shirt in one of those hip youth clothing outlets that just said “Vote” on it. Please vote intelligently. The alternative is to listen to negative ads and vote against the candidate that voted against breast cancer research or had an illegitimate black baby. (That’s how Republicans nominate George W. Bush…Vote smart!)