Only Obama

By George Hanna,
Special to Ya Libnan
While discussing the presidential elections with a friend I discovered he was undecided, and was willing to vote for either candidate. I proceeded to do something completely outside my character – I promoted Barack Obama.

Living in the political capitol of the world, being inundated with politics is something I have become very used to. Whether you like it or not, you and your neighbors eat up every morsel of news. During election season, with the exponential news coverage, making a clear thought decision on who to vote for becomes increasingly difficult. As a registered independent, my vote could easily sway from right to left, based on the policies of each candidate. My values and pursuit of ideals have kept me resigning my beliefs to a political party by joining the ranks of democrats or republicans. I pride myself for being an independent thinker, a realist who lives by logic, putting me at odds with practically every politician, who make careers of defying logic.Never before have I felt the interest or urgency to truly support any politician, a breed of beings with colossally flawed ethics. In most elections it has just been about voting for the lesser of both evils. I have always found bumper stickers for politicians cringe-worthy. Thankfully, for the first time in my life, I have found a politician who leads us to dream of what the best World can be.

While I am not naive enough to believe that Obama is anywhere near perfection, he brings qualities that none of the other frontrunners have. As a Lebanese immigrant, I have always believed that hard work leads to success, and that insurmountable odds serve as motivation to achieve greatness.

Only Obama can make America great again, by repairing the image of this country across the globe. While the administration of George W Bush continue on course to hand over a country to the next president with the greatest drop in What may appear to be irreparable damage to the reputation of this

Hillary Clinton lacks Obama’s sincerity when it comes to rebuilding American’s image abroad. She is no doubt experienced in many core facets of domestic politics, and may serve as an excellent cabinet member. However when it comes to charisma and character, Obama is clearly superior.

Only Obama has demonstrated the qualities of a leader who can truly drive change by pushing citizens to sacrifice for the sake of a bigger and better future. Hillary can talk policy, McCain tactics, and Romney reform, but only Obama can deconstruct the complex and in turn deliver a vision that breaks down barriers.

When it comes to the Middle East, only Obama had the critical foresight to vote against going to war with Iraq. Unlike rivals Hillary Clinton and John McCain, Obama does not share the blame for the deaths of well over 100,000 human beings, and the displacement of over 2 million Iraqis. On Oct. 26, 2002, he gave a speech in Chicago opposing the invasion of Iraq.

During the 2006 war, Lebanese-Americans like me watched in horror as Israel proceeded to destroy our beloved homeland. Over a thousand Lebanese dead, helpless children murdered, entire neighborhoods destroyed, and not a single bridge left standing. Then came the cluster bombs. It took the Bush administration weeks to force Israel to stop the madness, after the aggressors dropped over 4 million cluster munitions across South Lebanon.

Unexploded bombs now lie all over the place. In a Senate bill voted on in February 2007 to limit U.S. sales and transfers only of newer bombs with low error rates, Obama backed that plan while Clinton and McCain opposed it. Hillary has also refused to support the international treaty to ban land mines, which are responsible for killing and maiming thousands of civilians worldwide, a disproportionate percentage of whom have been children.

Senator Clinton has refused to support the international treaty to ban land mines, which are responsible for killing and maiming thousands of civilians worldwide, a disproportionate percentage of whom have been children. Then she voted down a Democratic-sponsored resolution restricting U.S. exports of cluster bombs to countries using them against civilian-populated areas.

I believe that only Obama can bring the necessary change to Washington and to the entire country, to repair America on the inside and the outside, and to restore this great nation as the beacon of freedom, democracy and dreams.