The real choice in November: Obama or Barr

It's pretty much a forgone conclusion, barring some major gaffe in the next few months, that Barack Obama will be our next President. McCain's pro-war stance puts him out of contention; besides, he'll never survive the debates--Obama's eloquent charisma will blow McCain off the stage.

Unless you are in favor of the USA continuing to build its empire by beating other countries into submission, you can't seriously consider voting for McCain. If you vote for him simply because you're Republican, stop and think for a few minutes about why you're a Republican. And "because I'm certainly not going to be a Democrat" is not a valid reason--there are other choices, you know. If you think you have a good reason for voting for McCain other than to promote war, please leave your comments below.

So, really, the serious choice for the election is Barack Obama or Bob Barr, the Libertarian candidate.

Why would Bob Barr be worth voting for? After all, he's only slightly more likely to win than I am. Well, for one thing, consider this chart of how the candidates' fiscal policies would play out:

• McCain: bankrupt the country by military spending
• Obama: bankrupt the country by domestic spending
• Barr: save the country by reducing the size of government

Voting is not about picking who will win. It's about picking someone who represents your values.

And that's my real dilemma. Bob Barr represents my values really well: greatly reducing the size of federal government, restoring personal liberties, establishing a non-interventionist foreign policy, health care reform based on improving the industry rather than by implementing socialized medicine, and much more.

Barack Obama doesn't represent my values very well, but I do like him a lot. It's true--he's "presidential". There's a decent chance he will be really good for improving America's image throughout the world. He'll be fun to watch. We'll probably be proud to have him be our President (we're long overdue for that). But underneath, he'll likely be playing many of the same political games. He'll make most of the same mistakes big government politicians make. We'll probably end up with socialized medicine, even higher taxes, and a collapsed financial system. But if Obama is as cool as he seems, we won't blame him.

Barr is not as presidential, but his ideas are the ones that our country needs. In fact, I've become convinced that adopting libertarian principles is really our country's only hope for survival (and sadly, I don't think it will happen in time).

I'm looking forward to the debates. I am hoping by some miracle that Bob Barr is given the opportunity to participate.

Whom are you currently planning to vote for?