I'm still for Obama but his supporters are not making it easy; hope will be valuable commodity

A confused reader of my blog thought my post praising the rationale behind a Tennessee newspaper's endorsement of Sen. John McCain meant that I am also supporting the GOP nominee for president.

I am not.

I endorsed Sen. Barack Obama for president early in October.

I've not changed my mind, although I must admit I am increasingly not in love with my pick for the White House. Comments by Sen. Joe Biden on a terrorist/international threat and congressman Murtha's labeling of his own constituents as rednecks has left me less enthused about Obama.

And the exhortation by one of his chief economic advisers, Warren Buffett, for people to seek out their inner greed and invest now in the stock market was simply reckless and immoral. If Buffett is going to advise Obama on the economy, then he might as well recruit Rush Limbaugh for direction on tolerance.

Also, McCain's proposal to buy up to $300 billion in bad home mortgages would provide immediate relief to Americans in need and also be real help in turning around the stock market. Obama seems to be more tied to Wall Street fatcats in making his political future possible than McCain.

Outside of these significant shortcomings, Obama still is my choice. I believe we will need someone in office who will offer simple hope to people who are hurting, just as FDR did during the Great Depression. His fireside chats inspired a nation.

Contrary to popular history and opinion, however, FDR's policies did not rescue or revive the economy. World War II did. The stock market suffered significant losses in 1937, eight years after the 1929 crash and into FDR's second term.

Yet sometimes hope is all that keeps a nation going. Obama's call for us to be each other's keeper will need to be stressed over and over in our own Great Depression. And his tax plan will put money into the hands of people who will need it most to simply survive. McCain's plan gives the biggest breaks to those who already have enough.

Other policies and programs proposed by both candidates are not going to be possible. Health care reform will have to wait until at least 2011. The nation will not be able to afford it. But the nation will need the savings from an Iraq war that is ended by Obama earlier than later. The greatest threat to this nation is now from within, not without.

Perhaps best of all, Michelle Obama will be the greatest First Lady since Eleanor Roosevelt. Her sense of justice for every human being, including Hispanics subjected to ICE raids, is most keen and impressive.

So to the confused reader, don't be so extreme. We can be complimentary of one another. There is no need to hate or denigrate the other side simply because we disagree with their approach or endorsement.

For whomever wins the presidency Nov. 4, this nation will need to pull together and rally around. Stay clear-headed and be an American first, not a caustic partisan.