by Alex Sagraves — We have two candidates running for president who are so starkly different there should be no undecided voters. Yet some people cannot make up their minds. It shouldn't be that difficult to decide who supports your core values and who is antithetical to your beliefs. Let‚s take a look at what the candidates stand for.





Barack Obama is not only a democrat because he has a D beside his name. He is truly engrained in the platform of the DNC. Obama supports: abortion, gay marriage, higher taxes on businesses, restriction of the second amendment right to bear arms, and sitting down with Iran‚s leader to discuss how we can be friends.



John McCain does not support: abortion, gay marriage, higher taxes on businesses, restriction of the second amendment right to bear arms, or sitting down with Iran’s leader to discuss how we can be friends.



Obama does not support: drilling on our own land for oil, giving parents the option to send their children to private schools, building nuclear power plants, or downsizing government.



John McCain does support: drilling on our own land for oil, giving parents the option to send their children to private schools, building nuclear power plants, and downsizing government.



Those are pretty stark differences, but here are some more:



From 1999 to 2002 Barack Obama was a member of The Woods Fund, a Chicago anti-poverty group, with William Ayers. Ayers is an unrepentant terrorist who, in 2001, told the New York Times, "I don't regret setting bombs...I feel we didn't do enough", when discussing his involvement in the terrorist group, The Weather Underground Organization of the 1970’s.



Apparently Obama and Ayers were pretty close friends who lived just a few blocks from one another and frequented the same social circles. In addition to Ayers, Obama's former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, is also a questionable figure for a presidential candidate to have ties to. Obama attended Wright‚s church for 20 years. Wright married Barack and Michelle, baptized their children, and Barack even had private meetings with Wright before announcing his candidacy for president. Wright used his pulpit in a Chicago church to spew anti-American hate speech with such colorful quotes as, “God didn't bless America, God damn America that’s in the bible for killing innocent people” and said that 9/11 was “America’s chickens coming home to roost”. Wright also referred to America as, “The U.S. of KKKA”. Obama is on record concerning Wright saying, "He is my mentor."





In the late 1980‚s John McCain, along with 4 Democratic Senators, was accused of unlawful involvement with a savings and loan mogul, Charles Keating. The Special Counsel who investigated the matter, a democrat, found no evidence that McCain was guilty of any wrongdoing. In 1991 a Senate Ethics Committee, headed by democrats, determined that senators McCain and Glenn were not involved in any illegal activity, but Senators, Cranston, DeConcini, and Riegle “had substantially and improperly interfered with the FHLBB in its investigation of Lincoln Savings” which was owned by Keating. This was as close as McCain has ever been to a scandal.



Other differences between the two men are evident in where they spend their time campaigning. On Tuesday September 16th John McCain was campaigning with his running mate in Ohio stumping to blue collar supporters. On that same day Barack Obama was the guest of honor at a fundraiser in Hollywood where attendees paid $28,000 for dinner and $2500 for an after dinner concert with Barbara Streisand. This is in stark contrast to Obama's populist message about common people not being able to afford gas and groceries. Apparently his base is comprised of Hollywood elitists with seemingly endless disposable income.



The two candidates have different tastes in running mates as well.

Obama selected Joe Biden, a 36-year veteran of the senate who was tapped for his foreign policy expertise. Biden's record speaks for itself. In the 1980's Biden was opposed to Reagan's handling of the Soviet Union, yet it was successful. In 1990, Biden was opposed to the first gulf war; history proven it was the right thing to do. In 2002, Biden supported the invasion of Iraq, now he is opposed to it. In 2007 Biden was opposed to (as was Obama) the troop surge which even Obama himself now admits is having great success.



Not only does John McCain’s voting record show that he was on the right side of all these monumental foreign policy decisions, but he chose a running mate who was as well.



While there is much adieu concerning Sarah Palin's lack of experience, one should truly compare her accomplishments to those of Obama and Biden. Sarah Palin would have voted with McCain in every instance and history has proven McCain was right. If this race comes down to a matter of executive experience then Palin should be President. Her resume is far heavier than the other candidates‚ with respect to administering personnel and budget. I do find it hard to believe that the same people who question Palin's experience are the same ones who herald Obama and his 100 weeks in the senate prior to announcing his candidacy for president.



We are less than two months from the election and we voters are faced with a serious decision to make. Look at where the candidates stand on the issues that are important to you.



If you support abortion, higher taxes, and pandering to world leaders then Obama is your guy.



If your values are more conservative then McCain is your guy.



The two tickets are very different. On one you have a man with no record of accomplishment and a history of voting “present” some 130 times as a state legislator coupled with a lifelong Washington insider with the poorest foreign policy record since Napoleon [Bonaparte or Dynamite]. On the other ticket we have a decorated war hero and POW with a 30-year history of taking on the establishment and fighting with his own party as well as the other to make this country better and safer. This visionary chose as his running mate a woman who has a proven track record of success. She is a woman who has overhauled her state‚s corrupt government and cut wasteful spending to the tune of a half billion dollars. Palin is a testament to the strength of American women. She has worked her way from hockey mom to VP pick while raising a family and doing things the right way. And I, for one, think it is high time we had a woman in the white house.



When you cast your vote November 4th, think about it carefully. Obama and Biden have proven they have been on the wrong side of history too often. Don’t join them.

Alex Sagraves

Grayson