The Peoria Dispatch

With a daily readership in the high single digits, an endorsement by the Peoria Dispatch carries real weight, and it’s time to make it public:  I’m supporting Barack Obama for President.

I decided shortly after the RNC, and the respective campaigns’ behavior since then has only reinforced my decision.  I’m definitely not a straight ticket voter and support a number of Republican candidates in other races, but the choice for President has become pretty easy.  I’ll forgo the reasons–you’ve heard them all before by sampling the political news deluge.  But forget for a minute the agonizing details of the candidates’ big reform plans and agendas, and watch these two recent ads.   They pretty much sum up the tenor of the two campaigns, and the core attitude that has swayed me:

I’m something of a political junkie and have overdosed on McBama news recently.  I definitely know them, and the sophistication of their campaigns is largely transparent.

On the way home from work, listening to Fox on XM, a heard a brief ad for a write-in candidate named Ron Hobbs.  The ad caught me off guard, and all I noted was some stuff about pro-life, $1.50 gas, and that I should go to “Hobbs for Hope” on the web.  It must have been an inexpensive spot.

Go to hobbsforhope.com and enjoy.  It’s like taking the Wayback machine to a late 90′s personal homepage, except it’s for a presidential campaign.  My favorite parts of his platform are:

• “Jobs Subsidize small businesses with monies saved from the Iraq War.”
• “Veterans – A fund for Veterans who are down and out.”
• “No weigh stations in Rest Areas.” (Truckers Agenda)
• “Traffic lights will be delayed for more time to drive through lights.” (Truckers Agenda)
• “All public businesses will have public rest rooms.” (Truckers Agenda)
• …the 18 other items on the Truckers Agenda
• “Keep American food for Americans.”  (Farmers Agenda)
• “Hobbs will make mandates on the food quota from China.”  (Farmers Agenda)

A number of times during the campaign, some unknown “regular guy” figure catches the spotlight for a few days and explains his “common sense” way to fix the country.  I actually quite like that phenomenon.  But while I’m sure Mr. Hobbs means well, I don’t think I’ll be writing his name in next Tuesday.

This skit is about a year old but is all too relevant today.  Though your 401(k) may make you cry, this will hopefully make you laugh.