I sympathize with, and even share, many of your frustrations. But there's a difference between choosing one's tactics and voting strategies, versus venting and asking for support. You have my support, but why bother trying to convince you Obama is better?

I am 100% sure you know the answer to your question, "then why is he so hawkish on Iran?" you know the answer for his "tough" rhetoric so why do you ask?

I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s (almost) a complete waste of time to try to understand the psychology of leaders/politicians…it doesn’t matter that much what part comes from “true beliefs” and what part comes from “compromises so I’m more electable” what matters is “what types of policies are they most likely to implement if/when in office” given various scenarios such as apathetic public, or such as activist progressive movement by the public etc.

I won't try to convince you that the difference between Obama and McCain are larger than the difference in 2000 between Bush and Gore..but the fact is that even if Obama WERE as bad as Gore, my decision algorithm would be the same:

monitor polls closely and if my state is “not close” then vote for the best candidate, probably 3rd party…if it’s close, then vote for the lesser evil (which I would have done even in 2000, as bad as Gore was, had my state turned into a close fight, which it did not) and certainly would do for Obama.

Oh, in addition to the tax breaks for those under 50,000/yr you forgot: To boost retirement savings, he has also proposed a 50% federal match on the first $1,000 of savings for families that earn under $75,000.

And you forgot: that he'd give a tax credit worth up to $500 per working person ($1,000 per family) to offset the Social Security tax on the first $8,100 of earnings

But I could also name bad things about some things Obama has said that you didn't. Bottom line, don't get yourself all depressed or PO'd in an immobilizing way. Pressure Obama, yes, in all the ways you can that are constructive, both before and (if he wins) then also after.

I've given you my algorithm for how I'll vote in my state, monitoring polls closely, it's how I'd want others to act, but you can disagree, no point spending hours debating individual tactics. Let's work together to move the country in a saner direction, both before AND after the election, we must not stop in this work.