Obama is up 10 points in the poll, but many of Obama's supporters don't know the issues or where he stands. They just want 'Change'. So how do we convince them what the right kind of 'Change' is...Here's what I do.
I typically ask what the most important issue is, to them.
After we get passed the 'Change' garbage and get to what kind of change, a couple of things come to the forefront.
Gas prices: So I ask them if they think building Nuclear Power Plants, more refineries and drilling offshore would be a step in the right direction or the wrong direction. Sometimes they counter with: this will take 3-5 years to make any impact, and I normally answer that we should have done this 10 years ago. They typically agree. Then I explain that Obama does not want to drill here, is against building refineries and is against nuclear power. So, after 4 or 8 years of an Obama Presidency, will we be better off without having built Nuclear Power Plants and refineries or drilling offshore?
War in Iraq: This one is difficult, but I am usually at an advantage because I spent 14 months in the Persian Gulf. I ask them what they hate most about the War in Iraq. They usually answer either loss of lives or increasing costs. For loss of lives, it's easy to counter that violent crime in New York or Washington D.C. is higher than that of Iraq. That usually shocks them. For increasing costs, I try to help them see it as an investment for a safer middle east, a safer country for those that are there, and a safer United States. The war in Iraq helps concentrate the people who want to hurt us overseas, rather than on Main Street. It helps with the recent release that with the new biometrics they are identifying at least 1 person out of every 100 terrorists/enemy combatants that are being captured in overseas as people having an arrest record HERE, in the United States. I would personally rather the people who want to hurt us, having left the U.S., and gone to fight us elsewhere, than here. I also argue that we have not been attacked on American soil since Sept 11.
Budget: After Iraq, the most prominent thing to come up is how much money we are spending on this war. While this is true, the entitlement programs that are crippling our economy are much more devestating. I will ask about the 'Bridge to Nowhere', a 400 million dollar project to build a bridge, to well, nowhere. Or I will ask about the subsidies that go to corn farmers who turn our food into a fuel which loses energy to produce. But surely not all Ethanol is bad, right? No, not all ethanol is bad...sugar based ethanol from sugar cane is incredibly efficient and runs most of Brazils economy. So, why don't we import that? We can't. Our sugar farmers have prohibited the importing of any sugar-based product. Earmarks ruin our budget. Special favors for special groups have a huge impact on our economy and our way of life, in the form of more expensive products, higher food costs, food shortages, and even higher gas prices. John McCain has vowed to veto any bill with earmarks.
Universal Health Care: This one is easy. All I have to do is bring up that nearly a third of people doing rehab or skilled surgery in the Northern States are from Canada. Either because the wait in Canada is too long, or the quality of care is too poor.
Global Warming: Yeah, I disagree with both McCain and Obama on this one...Until somebody can show me an SUV preserved somewhere that caused the last ice age to end, I'm going to have to go with the 'cycles' theory rather than man-made global warming, but neither candidate is different on this stance.
RKBA/2nd Amendment: This one is not as easy as it should be. McCain has not been our best supporter, but the truth is, the President does not have a huge amount of say in what happens on this specific topic. Far more important, are the kinds of Supreme Court Justices that McCain will nominate vs the kind that Obama will nominate(and easily get through a Democratic Congress). Just think how much differently the Heller case would have went if we had 1 more justice that was more of Obama's ilk.
Supreme Court Justices: I ask if they agree with the Supreme Court that a jury cannot sentence a serial child rapists to the death penalty. If they are interested, I explain the case. If they are not, I move on. I also ask them if they think terrorists or enemy combatants who have never set fut on U.S. soil should have the right of Trial by Jury. Most people are interested and are appalled that the Supreme Court would make such decisions, so I will go into which Justices made which vote. Then I explain who put those justices into office. Invariably, most normal people agree with the conservative judges. I then explain which kind of Justices McCain or Obama would likely appoint.
The Middle Class or the Working Poor: This one is fairly easy, too. What do you think is better for the working class? Higher taxes on the producers of products, therefore higher prices of those products, or less taxes, therefore enabling our American Made Products to compete with the products overseas. Some will always say that the 'rich' are unfairly benefited by Bush's Tax Cuts, but what it really comes down to, is the 99% of taxes are paid by the top 50% in earners. As has been shown over time, increasing taxes causes Federal Revenue to go down because people look for tax shelters. Decreasing taxes causes Federal Revenue to go up because more people are willing to speculate and invest, rather than just save. It's counterintuitive, which is why people like Obama have been able to confuse people.
In just about every issue that the normal person cares about, McCain is leaps and bounds above Obama. There is a difference. While there is room for 'Change', just make sure that the 'change' that you get is the change that YOU want.