DEEPLY DISSAPOINTING

As many of you know. I have been a supporter of John McCain since long before he started campaingning for the presidency. I have always admired his wartime heroism. During the Korean War, he endured years of cruel treatment as a POW. I've also admired his tenure in the U.S. Senate, where he was a maverick legislator standing up for what he thought was right, even if that meant voting against positions taken by his own party.

Unfortunately though, while he was a standup guy in the military and in the senate, McCain has been an utter dissapointment as a presidential candidate. He is a piss-poor campaigner. Yesterday, he could not even give an answer when someone asked him a simple question of why health insurance pays for Viagra prescriptions but not for birth control pills. As the country endures hard economic times, McCain does not seem to have the foggiest notion of how to turn this nation's sinking economy around.

On the other side, Obama is an excellent campaigner. But, according to the nation's leading economists, his solutions to our economic woes just will not work. And while he claims his programs will not require a tax increase for the middle class, there is no way they can be paid for without one. His voting record is that of a far-left politician, both in the Illinois state legislature and in the U.S. Senate. His foreign policy advisers have a long history of hostility toward Israel. Obama's call for an early withdrawal from Iraq could be the harbinger of a U.S. foreign policy disaster.

As I see it, what this country needs is a strong third party. The Democrats are dominated by a far-left fringe and the Republicans by the Christian right. The Libertarian Party wants government out of our lives, but is too insignificant to be anything other than a possible spoiler for one of the major party candidates. What we need is a Centrist party, one that takes the best of conservatism and of liberalism for its platform, one that protects and serves the average American rather than special interest groups, and one that ensures affordable health care for all of our citizens.

This election campaign has been deeply dissapointing. Obama, like Hillary Clinton, is totally untrustworthy. His own friends and advisers have assured some of those who have expressed concerns about his positions, that Obama's rhetoric is purely political. So, while my support for McCain has been on a steady decline, come November, I will hold my nose and vote for the Senator from Arizona.