As John McCain prepares to give what should be an extremely unispiring acceptance speech I thought I would post the bulk of an email that I just sent to my very conservative father in law regarding my choice for president in this election:

"It seems the Republican Party is more excited about their Vice Presidential nominee than their Presidential nominee; all because she has this thing described as “executive experience.” Executive experience means nothing to me. Bill Clinton had executive experience as governor of Arkansas, and I think you would argue that he completely mishandled the Al-Qeda threat in the final years of his presidency, mishandled his personal life, and made a series of poor decisions as President. George W. Bush had executive experience as governor of Texas before becoming president and we can undoubtedly see that pretty much all he did as president was make poor decisions. So, having the responsibility of making budgetary decision, veto decisions, or cabinet appointments or whatever in the past, has no bearing on the quality of decisions you’ll make in the future. I see that people in your generation are holding on to this notion that someone needs past executive experience in order to be a good executive in the future, and the Republican party is trying to exploit this idea once again by picking Sarah Palin as their Vice presidential nominee. But, that idea does not hold water with me because I see little to no evidence supporting it in our recent presidents.

I do not support John McCain’s candidacy for president, because I don’t trust him or believe a word he says. I question his motives, I question his intentions, and I question his ability to lead our country in a new era…a new kind of economy, a new kind of war, and most likely a new way of life. He is old fashioned and lacks vision and creativeity to meet the challenges we face.

I do support Barack Obama. I am excited about Obama. I think Obama has fresh ideas and will take a new approach to governing that will help us to meet the challenges we currently face as a society. I believe that he is smart and thinks deeply about the issues we face and solutions to our problems. For example, I think that meeting with and talking directly with Iranian leaders, a notion that Obama talked about during the primaries, rather than giving them the “silent treatment” as we have done for decades, is the kind of fresh new approach we need to take in the post 9-11 era to solve problems posed by potentially dangerous adversaries. I think that right now and over the next decade Americans need a president who is capable of inspiring them to take action for the betterment of our communities and our nation. I believe that more that any presidential Candidate I have ever seen, Obama is someone who, through his words at least, can move and inspire Americans to action. He’s demonstrated this ability in the presidential campaign by inspiring thousands of volunteers to work for his candidacy and inspiring millions of people to sign up to vote for the first time ever. Americans need to be inspired to care about their country and their future. We as a society need to wake up and stop focusing our energies on Britney Spears or Lindsay Lohan; for Christ’s sake only 30 – 40 % percent of even bother to vote in elections. I believe that Barack Obama is then man who can inspire us to better ourselves and better our society.

…And that is why I am voting for Barack Obama and not John McCain."