Really, to anyone undecided

Well I didn't think that anyone I knew closely would still fall under that category of "undecided voter" at this point in the game, but our good buddy Pete says he is. He sent out an email with a story about Kerry's wartime record that didn't have a very good outlook on his service. Now I'm not going to bounce the Bush's record ball or link you to this very page where we reference the "service" of the GOP vs. the democrats, mostly because Uncle Dave in his just as partisan attitude sent that out on voting day too. What I am going to do is copy most of the email I sent to Pete, because I think it says my opinion on how an undecided should view thier vote for the President.

Okay Pete, I'll bite. Here's the thing in my opinion. I'm not going to tell you this is anything, truth, lie, it's irrelevant. There are two ways you can vote, you can vote on rumours of past events or stories from people that disagree with the message of the candidate, or you can vote on issues. Personally, I'm a political junky, so I tend to favor a split line there. I feel there is an amount of the candidates past vs. the candidates issues that put together a good judge of who the candidate is. The problem with this election is that so much has been misrepresented and skewed that it's almost impossible to see either side clearly. What I think is important is to look closely at what 4 years of either candidate will do for this country, the world, and yourself.
In my opinion, John Kerry has the ability to change the way America is being viewed globally. I don't mean that we need some bullshit authorization from the rest of the world, and neither does John Kerry, but I mean that we have a responsibility to stand by our actions with the help of our allies. Our allies will stand behind us when we are in danger, that's been proven with 9/11, but our allies will turn their backs if we lie to our own nation about the reasons to fight overseas.
I also feel that John Kerry will be fiscally responsible, Bush has denied this major tenant of republicanism since the day he took office. Fiscal responsibility, not saying you won't touch the social security surplus and then turn around and give it away as a tax benefit given mostly to the rich when our foriegn efforts require more funding. That's like if you were to go out and buy a shotgun to protect your house and ignoring that there's no food in the kitchen for your children to eat.
Concerning health care, don't fall into the lies. First, John Kerry will not create some communist government program, his plans is merely to change the rates by allowing the country to bargain as an entity. You'd still get your insurance through Blue Cross or Medical Mutual or whatever company you choose, but because the government is the bargaining entity the insurance companies aren't as at risk per person because they know as long as they provide a good choice of plan for their customer, people will buy into that service. This pales in comparison to the health care Clinton proposed, but in truth has just as much of a chance of really passing in four years. Bush on the other hand, believes in over privatisation. Removal of patients abilities to sue for malpractice. And more than anything believes that the pharmacutical companies should get the break at the bargaining table on pricing, not the customer, which is you.
Now I haven't even scratched the surface on issues, and already it seems obvious to me that Bush is not the man we want as president. He's flip flopped on more issues that Kerry has in all his years in the senate, and he's only been in office for 4 years(see the blog for examples).
Bush does not feel he needs to hold his appointees responsible and instead praises their leadership when they fail. Bush doesn't take responsibility for the mistakes he's made in Iraq.
He still won't say a mistake he's actually made outright, and there are many.
I'm not going to get into a rant here, because I just voted and I voted for John Kerry. I was proud to vote that way and I hope that the American people open their eyes and see that he can be a strong leader for our country and he will actually try to make us safer instead of telling us we are when it's obvious that we know we aren't. Bush tells us that our allies are behind us, but they really aren't. Bush tells us that Al Queda is weakening, and their numbers grow every day. Even Bin Laden ripped on Bush for reading My Pet Goat while the country was under attack. He's a pushy, uptight man that stifles under pressure. John Kerry is a strong intelligent man with positive ideals and a good view of what America can be. Bush has no good reason to improve the next four years on anything other than making his contributors more wealthy. John Kerry knows that it's his responsibility to make something good happen in four years or he's out of a job and his party is out of the White House. It's that simple. Change for a positive future or stay on the sinking ship. All I care about is that you vote.