Obama vs. McCain Round One

So anyone who knows me even just a teeny tiny bit knows how I feel about Obama.... I think he's the most horrifyingly terrible option for our nation's president. On Saturday there was a civic forum at Saddleback, Rick Warren's church where each candidate was brought out separately and asked a series of questions. Even if I were looking at this unbiasely I would give the victory to McCain. Obama didn't answer half the questions and waffled back and forth on everything. McCain was concise, decisive, definitive and unapologetic. Keep in mind that McCain isn't my ideal candidate but he is impressing me so far with his stance on a number of things given that he is what I would consider a more liberal Republican. I guess I'll have to choose the lesser (much less) of two evils. I don't have a lot of time to go into everything but let me point out a few things:

1.) Abortion:
- Obama said "That question is above my pay grade" what??????? There is no higher pay grade than the president of the United States except for God. (that may have been his point but it was a stupid thing to say) Plus, if you're a Christian, as you say, then you have a direct connection to the Lord. He should be able to let you know what he thinks about embryonic life. As President you need to know your beliefs and stand by them. I don't want someone who doesn't know when a baby is a baby.
- Obama said "I want to work as hard as I can to reduce the number of abortions....despite legislation from the Bush administration abortion numbers have not gone down." First of all, if it is just a pile of meaningless tissue then why do you care to reduce the number of abortions. That is stupid. If life doesn't start at conception then why should it matter. Second of all, the last part of his statement is NOT TRUE. Abortion rates are currently at their lowest since 1974. Nice try Barack
- McCain said "Life starts at conception" Nice, clear, concise, and decisive answer.

2.) Marriage:
- They both said that marriage was between 1 man and 1 woman. However, Obama said he would not support a constitutional ban while McCain said he would. I appreciated this from McCain although I do think he is still to far left on the issue. I believe in human rights and equality...blah blah blah.... but I don't think that homosexual couples should receive the same "benefits" (i.e. employer discounted family healthcare pacakages) that same sex couples do. Why? For a moral reason? Yes. But also for fiscal reasons. I do not want to pay for someone else's higher risk lifestyle. Same thing goes for obesity, smokers, etc. Higher healthcare costs = more that comes out of my pocket for premium's every month.

I'm going to stop there for now. I don't have enough time right now to think everything through and present it concisely (as you can see above :) More later....