Who are you voting for, and why?

I will say, from the start, that I have biases. My parents voted Republican in state and federal politics most of my life. My father and two brothers-in-law served in the military during wartime. We were never upper class- in fact my father's family was lower class, living in a mill town and working in a steel mill. But I grew up with the belief that freedom was what my family and millions of others had fought to preserve, and that part of that fight was electing people who would preserve it.
I am also a Christian. And while I have brothers and sisters in Christ (and my family) who disagree with me, there are things I feel we should always stand for as those who follow Christ. I feel that I should stand for life, born or unborn, young or old. I feel that I should stand for justice and freedom for all people.
I feel that part of my job as a Christian man is to help the helpless and weak, to protect those who cannot protect themselves, and to provide for all as God allows me. But I believe that lies within the role of the government to help the common good, not to provide for each individual's needs. The individuals are to be helped, and helped to Christ, by the Church. That is the only antidote to the ills of society.

So I come to this election. Here is the choice that I see.
We have two senators, each of whom has had a part in the tremendous increase of government in the last few years. I think both of them really want to help the country.
Both claim to have faith, but have not practiced what I would call a strong faith- in terms of participation, submission to Christ, and a life that seems led by scripture and faith.
Faith's not a requirement- although it makes me more comfortable with a candidate-but honesty is. Both, and perhaps every major candidate in these days in America, have made compromises that I find distasteful, and perhaps they do. But they have "friends", recent or past, who are not friends to the country.
Both say they want to fix the health care system. But neither has valid answers to the biggest problems- the unemployed and employed who cannot get insurance on the job.
- In my opinion, we need to separate employment from insurance- make health care a commodity again- then the care will be driven by the market, not insurance. We might find many things affordable if we didn't believe that EVERY treatment option was the RIGHT of every citizen. But I don't rise or fall on my idea.
So on to differences-
In alphabetical order, I approach Mr. McCain first. He has been a republican, but has often gone against his party, sometimes when I felt they were right, not he. His pro-life record has been spotty, and his support for embryonic research has gone against what I believe.
Economically, he seems to believe that the people should have their money. But he is also funded in part by those who would abuse the people by gaining inordinate wealth for themselves.
But he has voted repeatedly to limit government- from judges who interpret the law instead of making it to reforming the grossly bloated election finance process.
And here's another less-than-unanimous opinion. I haven't agreed with everything that has happened in Iraq. But I believe we should defend those who cannot defend themselves, and for that reason, WMD aside, we needed to stop Hussein. I would do it again, 100 times, to protect people that are being killed by their own government, whoever was or was not with us on it. (See Rwanda).
The other shoe there, as Obama has repeatedly said, is that the group that planned the 9/11 attacks is in Afghanistan. If you read, or saw, Charlie Wilson's War, you know that we could have spent a fraction of what we have in Afghanistan in that country in the 80s and probably have prevented the attacks and growth of Al-Qaeda.
Oddly, I find his military service a non-issue. My father would say that everyone should do what they can in a war- McCain did nothing more than many of his peers- he just went into politics afterwards.
But I don't like him, don't trust him, and I am not pleased with McCain as a candidate.

The other senator is a skilled orator, our first serious black candidate (a real plus in light of our terrible record in allowing minorities a voice in government), and an intelligent, articulate man. He sounds nice, thoughtful, caring and desiring the best for every citizen. I like him better than McCain.
But when you look at his record, first in state and then in federal government, some frightening things come to light. He almost by himself kept Illinois from passing legislation to prevent horrible late-term abortions in a number of legislative sessions. He consistently voted against any restrictions on abortion or fetal experimentation. He consistently sided with those wanting more government control and less freedom.
Judicially he favored those who would "fight for justice," making policy and law from the bench as opposed to interpreting the laws as our system says judges should. I don't always agree with his ideas of what is just and right- but I'm not trying to get courts to overturn valid legislation to get my viewpoint commended.
Fiscally, he has favored bigger government and more control of businesses and individuals. I still haven't seen that work well. Ever.
And he has NO foreign policy experience, and some really scary ideas (there are people we shouldn't interact with as a government until they decide to commit themselves to helping- just like we did with the PLO- talking to those who harm us or others as a matter of policy is not right).
So I like him. But I REALLY, REALLY don't want him nominating judges, running our foreign policy and trying to get his social and fiscal agenda through congress for the next four years.
I will vote for McCain. Not happily, but definitely. Maybe Rice or Powell will run in 4 years...