Last night, the Democratic convention ended with a bang. Some accused the party of too much pomp and circumstance, but no one could have accused it of not enough substance. In Barack Obama's speech, he finally laid out, in painstaking detail, what CHANGE means. If you haven't watched the speech, watch it. If you have watched it, you know what I mean.

I have been aboard the Barack Obama train since he announced his candidacy 18 months ago. I am inspired by his rhetoric, impressed by his intelligence, admiring of his family values, and excited for the possibility he offers to this nation.

Lately, the fight has gotten a little dicey, and I have been in politic disagreements with people who have say that they don't feel that Barack Obama has the experience to be President. They seem to think it won't matter one way or another whether or not they vote for John McCain. I'm here to tell you that it will matter. It will matter more than we can possibly imagine right now. Here's a recent letter I wrote to someone who thought a McCain presidency and an Obama presidency wouldn't be too different from each other.

These are the reasons why a John McCain presidency and a Barack Obama presidency will not be the same thing. You may think of the matter internationally, but please think about domestically what it means for the 300 million American people who will have to live with a McCain presidency. For us, an Obama presidency means a dramatically life.

A McCain presidency means at least three new Supreme Court justices will swing right (The three who are near retirement are the long remaining liberal voices on the court). That means that future administrations will have the ability to roll back Roe. V Wade, and take away women's right to choose what to do with their bodies. It means that habeus corpus can be taken away at any moment and that fair and just trials will never been seen for the inhabitants of Guantamo Bay. It means that the government will continue to be able to shun the Constitution of the United States of America and illegally spy on its people, imprison them without charges, and racially profile people without any basis whatsoever.

Barack Obama will appoint liberal justices who value the Constitution, will uphold Roe V. Wade, and will be against the Patriot Act. We know this is true because he has explicitly stated that this is his position on this issue.

Barack Obama is the best chance for myself, my husband, and our children (someday) to have affordable health care in this country. Currently we pay $500 a month, just to assure that we CAN go to the doctor. Once we get there, we have a $50 copay. But even with these outrageous costs, we are the lucky ones. We can afford our insurance. We don't have to choose between putting food on the table and bringing our ill children for medical care. John McCain WILL not ever change the current system that we have in place now - it is a capitalist system that conservatives think is effective even though it has failed 50 million people. Even if Obama doesn't get his health care initiative passed, at least he has made a promise to try. That's more than I can say for John Mccain.

Obama's position on Iran is NOT the same as John McCain's. He has been excoriated in the American media for taking the position of advocating diplomacy instead of a rush to war, a position that I feel is the only right thing to do. A McCain presidency almost guarantees that the call to war will be sounded. If McCain never talks with Ahmadinejad, how can he come to any agreement with him?

Obama has pledged to exit the war in Iraq, helping to end this country's imperialist reign there. McCain has pledged to continue the war in Iraq, until Iraq is stable, a proposition that will undoubtedly lead to years and years more of bloodshed for that country, and the elimination of any sort of sovereignty that the country could ever have.

Obama supports the right for homosexual couples to marry, or at least for them to have all the rights that heterosexual couples. McCain believes that marriage should be between a man and a woman, and that homosexuals should be second class citizens.

Obama supports labor unions, gun control, eliminating tax cuts for the upper classes, lowering taxes for the lower classes, reforming education to roll back the ridiculous No Child Left Behind act, reforming campaign finance to exclude lobbyists and big money from the political process, the videotaping of homocide interrogations to ensure that criminals aren't coerced into confessions, the elimination of any racial profiling whatsoever, etc. etc. etc. How could that possibly mean that he's just a different candidate trying to achieve the same goals?

I am 27 years old, and I have never in my life been so excited about a candidate for president. John McCain tells you that electing Obama is a "risk", because he doesn't have enough experience to be President. But the real risk is electing McCain to the presidency. He's part of the party that lied the country into war, LIED to fool every day Americans about why we were going to war. He plans to keep tax cuts for the wealthy in place, the tax cuts that were supposed to stimulate the economy, and instead have stagnated it.

Do you think that the Republican administration has done a good job in the past eight years? If you have, feel free to vote McCain. But for all the rest of us who are struggling to pay the bills, who see the suffering of hard working people around us, who are sick and tired of an administration that flouts this country's constitution and its laws and abuses executive power, who still inside have hope that the country we know in our hearts can be the country we live in, its time to vote for Barack Obama.

Please post your arguments in the space below, if you have them. For once in my life, I'm open to people disagreeing with me. I think healthy politic debate can only help this country, so feel free to argue!