why will you vote for Obama?

You started out by saying you're wondering how many people here are going to be voting for Obama; I'm not sure how many discussions in this interest you've read or participated in but if you've spent any significant amount of time on politics inmyLot you've discovered I'm one of a relatively few people here who are voting for him and have I ever paid for it dearly here. The anti-Obamites here, many of whom feel they're justified in calling those of us who disagree with them "morons", as in "Obamorons" or something like that, and not only if we're actually Obama supporters; by merely saying they disagree with the attack e-mail forwards being circulated online and recycled here or other unconfirmed allegations and accusations against Obama. I was recently both called a racist myself and accused of calling a poster here a racist for pointing out that many of those circulating these falsehoods are in fact preying on the fears and prejudices of some voters, SOME of whom aren't willing to outright admit they're reluctant to vote for a black man, or perhaps I should say anyone other than a white Christian male with a name like John, Andrew, George or William. (Yes, I know I should have included James, Thomas, Samuel and Frank among others!) Sorry, I didn't mean to ramble off-topic so much! I'll try to answer all your questions to the best of my ability. First, "Did he say something that has inspired your trust?" This is a question I don't think I've ever seen asked before regarding any other Presidential candidate. I don't think there ever has been a candidate in all the years I've voted since 1972 where I could point to one particular thing he'd said that has "inspired my trust". There certainly have been some who have said or done something (or THINGS) that have inspired my DIStrust however, but that hasn't been the case with Obama. "Is it something to do with him being the first black president?" No, it isn't. I think it's a wonderful thing that we have finally reached the place in this country where a black person and a woman were among the last people standing after a long drawn-out primary process. I hope one day everyone will react like my 11 year old granddaughter and 13 year old grandson and various friends of both of them; to them the "big deal" was that there had never been either a woman or a black man President before, let alone nominee and that it was a "big deal" at all. "What has he done to gain your trust?" This question is very similar to your first question but I'm going to answer it slightly differently. I feel Obama has handled himself amazingly well throughout this whole process. He's taken everything thrown at him in stride and has remained cool under pressure. "Does his past influence your voting? Do you think you will vote for him because of all the hype that has surrounded his campaign? No on both counts, I don't base my vote on someone's past, real or imagine, and hype has nothing to do with it all as far as I'm concerned. It's all about the issues and character. As for McCain, I couldn't even consider voting for him under any circumstances because I don't agree with him on any of the important issues and the fact that he was a POW four decades ago doesn't change that. I always respected him for his service and held him in high regard for that reason but that respect has been eroded by his flip-flop on the torture issue, his stance of various veteran issues, his changing his story about the team roster he'd recited as a POW to pander to Pennsylvania voters in Pittsburgh and his failure to show respect to the widow of the man who actually saved his life when he was shot down in Vietnam. He didn't even acknowledge the man's existence in his memoir and that disturbs me. I can't say that influenced my decision, though, because I wasn't going to vote for him even when I respected him. Annie