Don’t vote

I’m voting for Obama

Today I decided to cast my vote for Barack Obama.

In addition, I donated 100 USD to his campaign — the first time I’ve ever made contribution to a political campaign.

Senator Obama is the first presidential candidate from any party who has inspired me. He has intelligence, compassion, humility, and eloquence. These are qualities that have been sorely lacking in the White House in the past seven years. We also need a leader who is capable of inspiring the nation. I believe Obama has this capability.

I respect and admire Senator Hillary Clinton, but I decided not to vote for her for two simple reasons:

1. I find the Clinton style of campaigning distasteful — changing position based on the latest polls, making untrue insinuations about opponents, and conveying a sense of entitlement — all these things simply turn me off; and
2. I just think Obama stands a better chance of beating Senator John McCain in the general election. A new TIME poll supports this intuition.

Barack Obama has managed to reach young people in a way no presidential candidate in recent history has. The Obama website shows how in-tune his campaign is with the younger generation. It’s reminiscent of a social networking site like Facebook. You can create your own profile (mine is here), meet fellow Obama supporters, invite others to the cause, and even get help with grass-roots organizing and fundraising. I obtained the logo above from the campaign website’s resource library.

The Democratic presidential primary election in Texas will be on 4 March, and because I will be back home in Stockholm by then, I will cast my ballot by mail. I encourage anyone who has not already done so to visit Senator Obama’s web site and learn more about him.