Why I'll Be Voting for Barack Obama next Tuesday

The Tsunami is coming. Less than 7 days now. I'm going to be making my voice heard, endorsing whole-heartedly Barack Obama for president.

Here are 10 reasons why I'm voting for Barack Obama:

1. We want change. I long for it. How can we expect someone who has been part of the system (for good and for bad) to be able to change it? Obama is the one candidate that is legit enough to win, and yet not prisoner to the existing system.

2. Now is the time. In the book of Esther, the princess is asked basically, "If not you, then who? If not now then when?" I think now is the time for Barack's message, purpose and presidency.

3. He is a product of the world of which I'm a part. He's from a diverse background, having lived around the world in his educational and formative years. He is himself in the incarnation of the American Dream coming from diverse nationalities and cultural backgrounds. He has a larger vision of what it means to be American and what it means to live in the 21st century informed and formed by his actual experience not just policy making decisions. He's for giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. Although he is for building a wall along the border (boo!)

4. He is more in touch with the 2.0 world in which I live, move and find my being. He has said clueless things, insisting on the price of arugala at Whole Foods to a union meeting in the mid-west. Yet he is in touch with the life I live and the world view that shapes my context.

5. He talks about hope instead of the politics of fear. Sure it might be just rhetoric but I can believe him more than the other candidates. He's a preacher, a true orator, who through his charismatic speaking can rebuild the hope and sense of community that have long marked our national culture and which have been scuttled to the winds in the recent wars of polarization and culture.

6. I think that Obama (Hillary could too but differently) could re-engage the entire world community in a new discussion and dialogue as the representative of the American people. I want him to represent me at the UN, and in the talks that would be re-established around the world once we have regime change here at home.

7. He has a priority for the poor. His community organizing in Chicago is and was formative in his worldview. Hillary & Edwards are good on this too. But I have to go with Obama.

8. He's in a similar life-stage as me, with younger children. Plus if he could win over Michelle he can win over me.

9. We need to think-outside-of-the-box to solve the problems we're facing and choosing not to face: Iraq, Pakistan, Kenya, Medicare, Social Security Reform, Election Reform, No Child Left Behind, Taxes, the Mortgage Crisis. I think he's outside of the box enough in a post-racial, post-partisan way that he will work across the polarizing divides to find solutions.

10. I think he can win. He's not divisive. Whereas Hillary won't win the Republican vote in November, I believe Obama will.

11. (OK I did say 10 but I can't stop myself!) He won me over in his speech after winning Iowa. I watched Hillary and then him. I don't want the same old Cronies. I want new people with a new agenda with a new leader!

12. I switched teams in my heart when I read the SF Chronicle article on an interview with Obama and then watched the interview with between Obama and editorial board of the Chronicle. You can watch and read it HERE.

13. I'd actually vote first for Mrs. Edwards who actually says 100% what she believes. But unfortunately she's not running.

See you on Tsunami Tuesday!