Compassion, equalizing the economic playing field - these are things I want from a president and it looks as though a lot of other people do too. For far too long we have been subject to the whims and desires of special interests - I am willing to take a chance on being disappointed by someone who claims to interested in righting social injustices.
Conservatives had their chance and got fooled by GWB, not once but twice. I can honestly say that I am not interested in your ideas of government as they failed us during the Reagan yrs and both sets of Bush yrs. Top down economics is a sham and fraud - a theory designed by the rich in order for them to keep and consolidate their power base while giving false hope to the majority. The idea of an ownership society just creates a nation of consumers and spenders which is a shaky platform to keep the economy chugging along - there is no proactive action taken only a wait-and-see-attitude and knee-jerk reaction when something does go wrong. All the signs were there for this meltdown, even I could see trouble on the horizon and all I did was sell real estate.
There is no room for social compassion in conservatism - just see Reagan's non-response to the beginning of the AIDs epidemic. Show me there is some sort of compassion in conservative ideals because all I see is hate and disdain.
This country was founded on the idea of questioning authority and keeping an eye on your own government - but because I am liberal I have people telling me I am not patriotic, telling me I am unamerican. Because I question our actions abroad I get told I don't support this country from people I work with, because I think we went too far with the Patriot Act - I support terrorism, because I think we need to shut down Guantanamo Bay - I side with Al Queada. Habeas Corpus being the foundation of our legal system and all - we can't even effectively fight terrorism with our own laws - we have to deny alleged terrorists basic rights that we would file complaints about in the World Court if another country did what we did. The glaring hypocrisy is embarrassing as an American - I want us to live up to the promise of what we stand for - not just act in selfish self interest.
Sorry this rant has gone past what you wrote keith and it's not directed at you but I am angry. I am angry that I cannot believe what I do without my love for own country being questioned. It's this basic republican strategy - calling us unamerican - that makes me want to close the door in the face of conservatism. I am one pissed off liberal and this election is LONG OVERDUE - the pendulum MUST swing this far to left to balance out the past 8 yrs of ignorance and greed. Conservatives out there - deal with it.