Obama Vs. McCain

McCain vs. Obama Debate

I thought this debate was very fun to watch because both candidates were smart, well-informed, and good debaters. I pretty much had an idea on where both the candidates stood on most of the issues but the part I found most intriguing was the little details they were bringing up about each other. For example, McCain talked about decreasing the size of government and cut spending. One example was the $3 million to study the DNA of bears in Montana. I’m not sure if Obama supported this or not but I’m pretty sure McCain didn’t.
One of the Obama’s points that I’m having really hard time following is to pull out the troops out of Iraq and concentrate them in Afghanistan.
I think by now, it does not really matter where you stand on whether we should have invaded Iraq or not issue. We’re already in there, and you can’t make a decision today that reflects yesterday’s issues. We went there for WMD but now the issue is terrorism.
Even thought I disagree with most of Obama’s foreign policy issues, he did raise some good questions, such as whether we should start talking with countries such as Iran and Syria. For the sake of peace and humanity, I believe all diplomatic options should be exhausted before any military strike.

Party Platforms

Issue #1 - Education

Education is really a place where you see the differences between the two parties. Of course, both parties share the same objective, to educate our people, but they differ on how to do it.
On the issue of school performance, Republicans are big supporters of letting people choose the school of their choice if the school they are assigned to is labeled as “dangerous” or “failing” schools. Democrats on the other hand, being very big critic of the No Child Left Behind Act, want to abolish this school labeling practice; they say it doesn’t solve the problem. Democrats say schools should be reworked and rebuild, not just to be labeled as “dangerous” and “failing” and be left alone.
Minorities and religion are another factor where you see the differences between Republicans and Democrats in the education field. Democrats are much friendlier to minorities than the Republicans; they encourage students to learn more languages, especially the America Native languages. Also, they tend to be very patient with students who do not speak English. Republicans on the other hand, from what I understand reading their platforms, is that the biggest objective is to learn English and little less sensitive to people who don’t speak English or foreign languages.
But of course, the biggest difference between the two parties in education lies with religion. Republicans are big supporters of classes for boys only or for girls only, equal classes for religious purpose, and of course, the right to sing The Pledge of Allegiance. Democrats didn’t even mention those issues.

Issue @2 - Territories/Regions
I know we only had to pick one issue but while reading the platforms, I came across something that I thought was quite shocking, the issue of U.S. territories. The Democratic platform talks about granting the right to self-determination and self-government to territories such as Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Hawaii, etc??? I wasn’t aware that we have been having these issues that we have territories that want to succeed from us, expect of course, the Republic of Texas. I think this is shocking! If those territories start succeeding, imagine what kind of precedent they would set? There are hundreds of frozen conflicts through out the world who want to succeed from other countries, and when they see territories in U.S. succeeding, I think this country will collapse.