If I would have been a U.S. citizen, I would have voted for Obama now that Ron Paul was no more candidate. Although back then I didn’t know enough about Ron Paul to have voted for him instead of Obama.
That doesn’t mean I must somehow dislike McCain, although at the end of the race I didn’t like how he campaigned. He has regained much of my respect after his concession speech. I really hope both Democrats and Republicans will listen to what he told you guys in that speech.
A lot of what Europeans think is wrong in America is exactly the kind of black and white thinking that must be overcome and that McCain & Obama have seemingly tried to address in both their speeches. Although we have our share of black & white thinkers too, sure.
Wrong & right, evil & good, right or wrong: none of these concepts really exist. They are just models. I convinced myself that of all candidates, Obama understands this most. He will listen to you, especially when you disagree, he said.
It’s in disagreement that we humans learn most from each other. It’s in cooperation and mutual respect that we make most progression.
The only rational conclusion a rationalist like me can make is that there’s no black and white. There are many shades of gray and on top of that there are many eyes who all have shades of different opinions. War, is something that turns eyes into black and white.
I conclude that the moral of respect for other opinions is still a successful meme: we saw McCain shush his audience when they were being disrespectful for the outcome of the election, we saw him giving a brave and gentleman concession speech. I repeat that I consider this meme to be the most important one humanity ever got convinced of. And for this reason, McCain has regained my respect.
Today, I’m happy that I visited the Boston Summit this year. I was in America when there was hope, now I can visit it again when there will be change.
Right?
“If I would have been a U.S. citizen,…”
Remember when I told you on #g-h that you must not have a “would” or “will” in the if clause and you asked where you did that? Well here ;-)
Best of the posts syndicated on Planet Gnome so far, IMO.
People tend to get a little crazy in the run up to an election, and in the midst of all the anger and fear and pent up rage, a lot have lost sight of the fact that both candidates were remarkably decent. It’s been at least 16 years since both candidates tried to reach the other side, to argue the merits of eachother’s positions, to shush their own loonies, to keep things as respectful as they can. And it’s been just as long since we’ve had a choice between so many genuine centrists.
I was a Clinton supporter from the beginning but was *elated* that the alternatives were Obama and McCain. To have such an array of decent choices is an amazing privilege, and I’ll always be grateful for it. In the end I voted Obama, but I wasn’t going to complain too loudly had the election gone the other way (Palin really can die, though).
@Christian: I’m going to let the grammar error be, so that your comment keeps making sense. But thanks a lot for pointing me to it.
:)
Ron Paul would have been the best president in ‘forever’ for America.. I was thinking hard about writing him in when I looked at the Write-in section of the ballot.
In the end I decided to vote Chuck Baldwin, who was endorsed by Ron Paul. Personally I don’t like a couple of Baldwins views, but the rest I agree with fully. Ralph Nader was also on my list of people I should consider.
Today I feel satisfied that I did well with my choice, but have a small feeling that I should have went full out with what I believe and voted for Ron Paul, write-in or not, counted vote or not.
There is right and there is wrong. There is white and there is black. Now you are blind but one day you might see.
I don’t particularly agree about Ron Paul. While it’s really great to have a candidate who wants to make monetary policy an issue… I don’t like his monetary policy. You can rail against the Greenspan Fed all day in my book, but my train stops at the gold standard. Other than that I don’t mind him much at all. He reminds me of the better side of the republican party.
McCain has always been that man. While some on the right, (and even a troofer from the left) may have done some stupid stuff, he has always run a campaign to be respected.
Why the question at the end – you already nullified the concept of ‘right’ a few paragraphs earlier:
“Today, I’m happy that I visited the Boston Summit this year. I was in America when there was hope, now I can visit it again when there will be change.
Right?”
—
“Wrong & right, evil & good, right or wrong: none of these concepts really exist.”
Your first name is Philip, right? Or am I merely correct? :-) BTW, next you’ll tell us that machine language doesn’t exist and that everything is a .5. :-D
Just a typo in your post, America is a whole continent not a Country, I’m American too and i don’t live in the US, http://www.dcc.uchile.cl/~rbaeza/inf/american.html. Thanks.
For more info re “black and white thinking”, please see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splitting_(psychology)
Jaime
But some greys are darker or lighter than others.
I voted for McCain because I want to smell Sarah Palin’s snatch!