Twenty-five Reasons Why I Will Vote for Barack Obama

1. Because he is my age and I can measure his worldview by my own.


2. Because he neither fought in Vietnam nor in the streets against Vietnam and at long last, it is time we exorcise the ghost of Vietnam.


3. Because he struggled to come to terms with religion and still struggles to come to terms with religion and I don't trust those who have never struggled to come to terms with religion.


4. Because he is more intelligent than I, as a President should be.


5. Because he went to Harvard on his merits and not, like the current occupant of the White House, because of affirmative action.


6. Because he is black and he is white and he understands the prejudices of each.


7. Because he used his Harvard Law degree to help people, not corporations.


8. Because he not only reads books, he writes them - himself.


9. Because he is neither warrior nor business tycoon and we need to get over the false belief that either makes a good President.


10. Because he appeals to hope and I do not care if some people prefer fear.


11. Because he comes from Hawaii, an exotic state that is not steeped in the prejudices of the Deep South, nor the hubris of Texas, nor the false modesty of the Midwest, nor the blue blood of the East Coast, nor the machismo of Alaska, nor the self-importance of California.


12. Because he adopted Chicago as his home, as did I.


13. Because he lost an election to Bobby Rush, a former sixties radical, and therefore learned that there are times when a mature man might have to interact with a former sixties radical.


14. Because he does not try to claim that Sarah Palin is against dental care for kids because she is a hockey mom and many hockey players lose teeth.


15. Because he has not stooped to question McCain's associations with G. Gordon Liddy or Charles Keating, both convicted felons.


16. Because his association with Reverend Jeremiah Wright brings discomfort to people who are comfortable with Pat Robertson and I am glad they now feel what I have long felt.


17. Because he is cool and smooth and unflappable, qualities that will serve us well in the tough times ahead.


18. Because unlike Bush, he can pronounce the name of Iran's president, and unlike Palin, he could do so without requiring a tutor.


19. Because his father was not a President, nor an admiral.
20. Because he was neither born into money nor married into it.


21. Because I love the irony by which a black-skinned man born of modest means and raised in a broken, multi-racial family can be accused of elitism by those suckered into believing that the prodigal son of a long line of Yankee blue-bloods is "just folks."


22. Because even if he is not a Muslim, I wish he were, since it would be nice to have a President who could betray the principles of a different religion for a change.


23. Because it amuses me to see people foam at the mouth at the "socialism" of returning the top marginal tax rate to 39% but not at the "socialism" of spreading their wealth to undeserving banks and auto companies.


24. Because it amuses me that after seeing him vetted and tested before their very eyes over two years, people still do not trust him, but trust instead emails that show up in their inboxes from unknown sources.


25. Because he is skinny whereas the world thinks of Americans as fat; he is black whereas the world thinks of Americans as white; he is smart whereas the world thinks of Americans as dumb; he is calm and reserved whereas the world thinks of Americans as loud braggarts. His very being will confound the world and upset its preconceptions of our country, as well as our own.