Why I will not be voting for ...

This is a purely political blog post from a politics junkie. Feel free to skip it if you are not into it.

On that unusually cold day (for the DC area) we made our way to the National Mall to celebrate the swearing in of the first black president in American history. The schools in the area were all closed so the kids could take part in the historical event. The previous night we wrote tags with phone numbers and addresses and pinned them to the inside of the DDs jackets. Innumerable crowds the likes of which DC had never seen before was expected and people with little kids were advised to take precautions. The next day dawned chilly and cold and DD was feeling under the weather but lost interest when we said we might not get anywhere near to seeing anybody, we dropped them off at our friends house and proceeded along with hundreds of thousands of others to the nation's capital.

I was not an enthusiastic supporter of Barack Obama by any means. During the campaign there were two things that left me with a bitter taste, one was him his campaign calling of President Clinton a racist and second was his refusal to accept public financing. No one knew what he would do besides blind hope because there was nothing that people knew about him other than the speech at the 2004 Democratic convention. He was an extremely careful politician while he served in both the Illinois senate and US senate in the way he voted. The press had taken on a voluntary gag order afraid to ask even the most obvious questions and everyone was left in the dark where he as politician stood. Is this how Manchurian candidates are made?

For me the high point of his presidency started and ended with his inauguration. The national mall was filled with emotion, hope and yearning for a better tomorrow. Every African American near me had moist eyes and to see so much pent up emotion up close gave me goose bumps. I guess that was the last time they had tears of joy in their eyes in the next four years.

I am a genXer and in this election what matters to me is not entitlement reform, immigration reform or foreign affairs. What is done with Medicare and Social Security is not my priority because I do not expect either of those entitlement programs to be around for my retirement years. Immigration reform, President Bush did more than him and this president is good at symbolism rather than real action. Foreign affairs - America and American Presidents do what is primarily important for the country be it supporting dictators or toppling them. Yes there are those presidents who get the country into unwanted wars and dig a deep hole.

Obama came into the White House with lot of people thinking if he can't fix the problems ailing America no one will (well I did). A lot of young people had so much faith in him. This perhaps in my mind his biggest crime, turning off a generation of youngsters to politics. He used them effectively to get elected and did little else for that constituency. Sad! He came to power with a lot of political capital but he chooses to squander his good will on the Health Care reform. This healthcare reform had small slices of give outs for each constituency be it insurance providers, hospitals or who ever, no wonder there was no big opposition from them. I bet you will be hard pressed to find a handful of people who know what is in the health care reform law. This unpopular fight left no good will for his bigger fights. If he had tackled financial reform instead there would have been no Republican opposition, at the height of the financial debacle to pick fights on financial reform would have been political suicide for them. Will he do it in his second term? Wells of cash from the financial industry confirms that it will not happen.

Obama promised to reform Wall Street but did absolutely nothing about it. He had everything going for him and had once in a lifetime opportunity to bring financial reform and it is criminal that he chose to do nothing. Healthcare reform could have waited, only he knows why he took that one on. To show Hillary Clinton he could do where she failed? Judging by the people he chose to give him advice on financial matters, William Daley from JP Morgan (not to mention the corrupt Chicago political machinery that he comes from,never mind that Obama came from the same place), Timothy Gaithner an ex New York Stock Exchange head and Lawrence Summers, the less said about him the better. The last but not the least was his appointment of Eric Holder as Attorney General, he coming from a law firm whose clients include many of the same financial firms. No wonder he is more into Fast and Furious. Once his term is over where does he go back ...?

During President W.Bush's term for all his faults, those who did criminal activities were prosecuted, remember Enron?. What does that tell about Obama's values? His heart bleeds for the voiceless poor and the middle class? You bet?.

The press more than anybody has a lot to blame to take. Obama and his team learned early on that crying racism will make the liberal press back off. Where is the press which is happy revealing every minute detail about Romney's life including his family dog that took a trip on the hood of the car has simply gone silent where Obama is concerned. Well with Obama do you know anything about his college life? How he got into college or what did there?. We were also fed this line about him being a great orator. It simple astonishes me though because I haven't seen proof of that great oratory. No wonder I am still undecided!! Teleprompter anyone? Well in his real test without a teleprompter even the liberal media gave him failing grades!.

If you are political and mystery thriller junkie like me I have a book recommendation for you.