The Malaysian Insider

NOV 3 — He was a relatively unknown United States Senator candidate for Illinois when he delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. It was the end of a devastating summer and I found myself lying forlornly on a sofa watching the DNC on television. I wanted to listen to Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Edwards and John Kerry instead of a skinny black guy with a funny name.

The commentators on television, however, were discussing about how Barack Obama is a rising star in the Democratic Party, much like how the Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm was except that he writes well. Maybe I should give him a chance and stay in front of the television, I thought to myself.

I cannot recall who introduced him to the podium but I remember being impressed in a way I have never been. His words, especially when he spoke of how "there is not a liberal America and a conservative America — there is the United States of America"; how "there is not a black America and a white America and Latino America and Asian America — there's the United States of America" moved me so much.

The next half hour was so exhilarating that I as a foreigner in a little liberal fortress in the Midwest felt the urge to vote on Nov 4 even when I had no right to do so. I did not need this speech to be partial to John Kerry but Obama's address inspired me to participate in one way or another. It was hard to sit down while watching the crowd in Boston applauding Obama's address. It was easy to be carried away by the spirit of the moment.

I have kept track of him ever since that day in July. The Internet buzzed with the possibility of Obama running for the presidency some time in the future. The reason was simple: he outshone all other speakers during the DNC.

The 2004 presidential race was easy for me. There was an illegitimate war in Iraq much to the disapproval of the majority of the world community. Fierce debates conducted within the hall of the United Nations Security Council and massive protests all over the world were evidence to that.

Civil liberty meanwhile was under threat with the passing of the onerous Patriot Act. There were reports that telephone conversations were being bugged. Privacy was disrespected in the name of security.

As a Malaysian in the United States, I hated being profiled and pulled over by airport security every time I took a plane. That however was not as bad what some fellow Malaysians had to suffer. They had to report to some Homeland Security office all the way out at Ann Arbor in Detroit regularly.

Bush's "either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists" speech made it such that it was clearly anything but Bush back then. Well, actually, John Kerry was the only real option to George Bush. In the modern two-party system in the US, it is always between the Democrats and the Republicans.

But Kerry lost and Bush stayed in the Oval Office.

Four years later, the cycle begins anew and this time, it is between John McCain from the Republicans and Barack Obama from the Democrats, both being US Senators. Choosing between McCain and Obama however is harder than it was between Bush and Kerry for me.

This is mostly because McCain, at least before he pandered to the base of the Republicans party for the upcoming presidential race, has a mind of his own. He was, as others derisively called, a Republican in name only; a RINO. He has the audacity to speak his mind even if it is unpopular.

Who had the guts to tell off those farmers in Iowa that ethanol subsidy is wasteful, that it is far more efficient to import it from Brazil? Or face off those automotive workers in Michigan and say they need to compete fairly against their counterparts across the Pacific?

It is an unpopular but the right position to take. Nobody who participated in the Democratic and the Republican primaries, save probably Ron Paul, had the guts to say that but John McCain.

What made McCain refreshing to me is that he is one of those blue-green politicians who are so rare in American politics — he believes in a free market and cares for the environment. He sees the market economy and the environment as not mutually exclusive.

In the fierce repeating debates to open the Arctic National Wildlife refuge in Alaska for drilling, he joined the Democrats in opposing it. In the early 2000s, he together with Joe Lieberman drafted a Bill to do something about US carbon emissions through a market-based mechanism.

McCain does however hold disagreeable political positions in my point of view. Some of them are issues on security, a hawkish foreign policy, abortion, religion and teaching on evolution. While I was prepared to overlook these issues, they have unfortunately been amplified during the primaries. Instead of maintaining a centrist outlook, McCain's journey to the right to join the religious conservative has been disappointing. Having Sarah Palin as his running mate made it all worse.

With Obama as the President, it is unlikely that the same social issues would disturb me as much. Democrats, after all, on average have a socially liberal outlook. It is because of this that civil liberty is basically guaranteed to be unchallenged by a Democratic White House.

The best of all, having a black President would challenge the xenophobic tendency of those sitting on the right of the political spectrum within the Republican Party. At the end of the day, perhaps a creation of a United States less riddled with prejudice.

When McCain should have distanced himself from the policies of Bush, he made a U-turn to gain the favour of the socially conservative within the Republican Party during the primaries as he gained favour against several other candidates like Mitt Romney and the religiously conservative Mike Huckabee.

The Economist lamented McCain's transformation months ago and recently, translated its disappointment by endorsing Obama. This disappointment is shared by many libertarians.

A number of libertarians are abandoning the Republicans by migrating to the Obama camp. The Republican Party under Bush has betrayed the libertarians and there is a need for libertarians to make a statement.

These libertarians are now hoping that Rubinomics would reign in spite of all the speeches that Obama gave, like the renegotiation of NAFTA or punishment for firms which outsource its operations outside of the US.

I am however unsure how wise that move is, especially when the Democrats are controlling both the House of Representatives and the Senate. With another Democrat in the Oval Office, there might be a tendency to take an overtly populist protectionist stance against trade, hurting the fuel of prosperity for people all over the world.

Given the current economic climate in the US when it is easy to make a scapegoat out of free trade, the concern is very real. Short-term pain has a way of making people forget the cumulative net benefits reaped from free trade. In this way, many are sadly blind, myopic and forgetful.

The worry should be typical of a centrist which has the ideal candidate as a social and economic liberal. I want a candidate who believes in both civil and economic liberty.

In the United States, the ideal candidate is hard to come by. The Republican Party represents the socially conservative but economically liberal. The inverse is true for the Democratic Party. Both sides have their strong points and both sides have their weaknesses.

For this reason, especially when I do not have the right to vote in the election, I am one of those undecided individuals standing by the sidelines watching race intently. Though I cannot vote, I will be affected by the results of the election because after all, the US is a superpower with presence all over the world.

Whatever the outcome in the Nov 4, 2008 US presidential election, the winner will preserve, defend and uphold the Constitution which guarantees the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Whatever the result will be, it will be a testament of the best America has to offer — liberal democracy.

I am unable to endorse either candidate because I like and dislike both. I however can endorse something larger and I endorse the system.

Hafiz Noor Shams still roots for Ron Paul at maddruid.com