Save the Republic. Elect Barack Obama.

I am an independent voter and I am voting for Barack Obama for President.

Here's why:

The Obama campaign is about solving problems; the McCain campaign is about creating problems.

Barack Obama has done more to move our country in a positive, new direction than any candidate who has run in this race.  In his campaign, we have seen exactly how he will govern as President: with intelligence, wisdom, integrity, resolve, and an unflinching sense of duty to preserve, protect, and defend the U.S. Constitution.  After 8 long years of despair, we are already a better, stronger, healthier nation because of his brave leadership.  I am excited about the opportunity that only an Obama administration will give us to reconnect and do some good things we all have wanted to do for a long, long time, for ourselves, for our communities, and for our country. 

Mr. Obama knew, at the start of his campaign, that getting more families, neighbors, friends, and colleagues invested in their own personal resources was a necessary step toward reforming our government.  We can rebuild our ailing economy and our status as a conscientious leader of the democratic world only when we rebuild ourselves as a People.  Because of Mr. Obama’s leadership, millions of Americans have more energy and a greater willingness to tackle the problems of daily life.  More of us are prepared for the challenges we face as a nation and are committed to the long-term solutions needed to confront them. 

Mr. Obama doesn’t have to promise that change is coming; it’s already here.  The change we need is about us.  As President, Mr. Obama will continue to put trust in us as we strive to fully express our expansive capabilities as a united sovereign People. 

Compare this to what the Republican ticket has to offer. 

As we have seen in the way he runs his campaign, a McCain presidency would bring out only the worst in us.  Dishonesty.  Hypocrisy.  Divisiveness.  Corruption.  Indifference.  Impulsiveness.  Overindulgence.  Stubbornness.  Irresponsibility.  Unprincipled leadership.  Another model of willful ineffectiveness preparing us for failure.  Americans demand a higher standard than this.

I am voting for Mr. Obama and Joe Biden because they are the only candidates who are taking our nation’s problems seriously.  Mr. McCain and Ms. Palin, in contrast, are doing their best to make our very real responsibilities seem like a joke.  I am especially offended by their contempt for the U.S. Constitution.  What would Washington or Madison have to say about a bid for the presidency that scorns the very document that invented it? 

If there’s anything to fear, it’s an administration that has a collapsing foundation on which to base its playful attempts at governing a nation of 300 million people, a growing number of whom are jobless, losing their homes, and nervously uncertain about the future.  Mr. McCain and his campaign are not only unconcerned about an impending political crisis; they are engineering it.  How much longer, in that case, could we continue to legitimately call ourselves a constitutional democracy?

McCain: More Problems; Less Leadership.  No way.  No how.  No, thanks.

The choice in this election couldn’t be clearer: immerse in the change that makes us stronger and healthier or submit to the destructive will of a ruling class that thrives on keeping us distracted, passive, and weak.

Americans are real people with real plans to solve real problems and enjoy real prosperity.  Barack Obama trusts us to work together to get the job done.  And we trust Barack Obama, a real leader, to keep leading the way.

Save the Republic.  Elect Barack Obama.