The Reasons I am voting for Barack Obama...

Hope in the face of difficulty, hope in the face of uncertainty, the audacity of hope: In the end, that is God's greatest gift to us, the bedrock of this nation, a belief in things not seen, a belief that there are better days ahead."
Barack Obama - Democratic National Convention Keynote Address

So, I was at dinner with Jenni and Rob the other night and Jenni asked why I am voting for Obama (and why Rob is voting for Mitt Romney). I told her a shorter version of my reasons, but just in case anyone else would like to know, here they are (in a VERY brief summary):

• Supports network neutrality (preserves open competition and gives EVERYONE the access to the full wealth of information available on the Internet)
• Encourages diversity in media ownership (currently everything we see/read/hear is owned by five companies - NOT OKAY)
• Holding government/businesses accountable for violations of personal privacy (we are currently living in a Big Brother state)
• Will lower health care costs by investing in an IT system (why do we still have paper records?)
• Reforming death penalty (i.e. required video-taped interviews with inmates on death row... again... why haven't we had this yet?)
• Expanding illegality of hate crimes
  
• Establishing a credit card bill of rights (will apply interest rate only to future purchases, prohibit interest on fees, etc.)
• Super supporter of teachers (hello?! Why aren't the paid more???)
• "Establishing new requirements for political appointees to discourage the use of public sector positions for personal or private gain."
• Banning gifts to Executive Branch employees
• Fighting wasteful spending by ending abuse of no-bid contracts (I am really sick of "All the President's Men"-esque debacles that people pretend don't exist)
• Making White House communications public (Yes, please.)
• Plans on talking with "friends AND foes"... meaning - we will work with people who don't worship the ground we walk on (that's new for us)
• Promotes responsible fatherhood (crack down on men avoiding child support payments)
• Creating transitional jobs program (gov't subsidized, as opposed to straight welfare... more closely resembles my church's stance on welfare, which I agree with)