I totally agree with Joan's sentiments here, only I think

it is mistaken to feel sorry for Obama at all. He is doing

just what he feels he needs to do. He is counting on the

"hold your nose" vote (that is, even if we don't like what he

is doing, we will "hold our noses" and vote for him).

Yeah, maybe. Or, maybe not.

My plan at the moment (being one of those "bitter" over 45 year old women) is to either write in my own name or Hillary's if the dems don't put a woman on the ticket.

I am done with the national parties not putting but 1 woman on the national tickets in more than 200 years.

I will vote for a competent female, even it if is me.

Obama does what he needs to do and so do I.

So far, Obama has jettisoned his position on a timetable for troop withdrawal in Iraq, campaign finance reform, telecom accountability (FISA), NAFTA renegotiation, gun control, late-term abortion, Jeremiah Wright and his own grandmother.

He’s looking more like an ordinary politician each day. And it's only July. Sorry, folks, but this is change I can’t believe in.

I never supported Barack Obama because I knew his record in Chicago, and about his treatment of Alice Palmer.

Nothing that has happened since has improved my opinion of him. His actions since assuming the position of Presumptive Nominee have increased my anxiety that he is unqualified and without integrity.

BUT, then McCain careens from pillar to post on one issue after another, and he is truly frightening.

I have no choice but to vote - reluctantly - for the lesser of two evils.

How sad that this big country has nothing better to offer the people that a choice between these two.

The people who put Obama up for the nomination betrayed the Democratic Party and so democracy downriver. Now we have two poor candidates that betray democracy in America. Mc Cain I have a bit more confidence in but not based on the campaign he has run but on his past as a moderate. Using the Internet as a source of political engineering caused many people, mostly older Americans to lose their voice and having their voice disenfranchised. The younger people, by virtue of being young, don't know how much experience counts and have little respect for the fact that Obama used people's money and support to get a job in the senate and never did much with it. The voters in Illinois deserved more. In setting up this inexperienced man with little history with the Democratic nomination, we have all lost and I'm getting worried how we can get the country back. We needed someone to bring back Constitution rights, not throw it out the window. I am voting for Nader, which may seem like more of a protest vote, but he is the only candidate I can stomach voting for. I would prefer to have the Democratic Party and the Republican Party get its act together, but I suspect both are beyond hope.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/?pageId=69294

Take a look at this article.

Sure, its better than here. And Obama is better than McCain or Hillary. That doesnt make him great. Canada'a power base has been shifting rightward for years now. I know we have the deplorable slavery history (my familywasnt even here then--I wish we still werent! But, who can afford Scandanavia now?), but we would do better to pay reparations than to accept whatever an AA candidate does--which s racist in itself!! What, we're supposed to expect LESS from himm because he's AfA?? When Canada, France, UK, etc. get a African' background or black nomoinee---get back to me!!

Re: "Take a look at this article."

'World Net Daily' is hardly a reputable, neutral news source.

http://conwebwatch.tripod.com/stories/2008/wndmccain.html

In order to be a loyal progressive, according to you, Joan, a presidential candidate has to ignore every bit of new data, as well as the voting pattern of most of his colleagues in the senate. He must rigidly adhere to a jaded cersion of the liberal agenda, on an unrealistic, a priori basis, so that, for example, when he votes for a surveillance bill which punishes telecom companies who violated the last one, and it fails miserably, because of democratic party sell-outs, then he's no good for voting for a compromise bill, which includes added safeguards. When he modifies his genertal platform on Iraq, to be consistent with recent developments on the ground, there, then he is a traitor, as well. When he understands that it is unconstitutional to ban the carrying of firearms in the nation's capital, or anywhere else, he merits the same labelling.

If you are really sincere in your criticisms, then what is your alternative? Hillary Clinton has never apologized for her foolhardy support of a war, that despite all the manipulated intelligence, she should have engaged in far more debate about. What were our goals? Who were our Iraqi allies? What type of war was it? What are the best-educated military minds, like Colin Powell, Wes Clark, or General Kashvili saying? How do we get out? Why did Hillary Clinton foster the HMO system, in this country, which has been a disaster, insofar as dangerous corner-cutting? Why dioes she support trade policies which have helped bankrupt the country?

Or, perhaps, you'd like to vote for the Republican, pro abusive-petroleum-interest contingent, the latest issuance of which, by the president, being the silencing of the EPA's recommendations for cleaning the environment. This was done with the hypocritical lie that cleaning our environment would cripple the economy.

You cannot say that Barack Obama does not have a strong desire to re-invoke a fair, progressive tax structure, to resurrect the estate tax and taxes on overseas business, to re-acquire some measure of import controls, to end the war, on as timely a schedule as possible, to foster alternative energy subsidies and development, and to create jobs and higher levels of education and physical wellbeing. What more of a candidate could you ask?