Senators Barack Obama and John McCain are the two candidates in the United States presidential elections in November 2008. They have significant similarities and differences, particularly on political and national issues. Obama is the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party, while McCain is the nominee of the Republican party. However, one of their most notable differences is their race. Obama, a Senator from Illinois, is the first African-American or black candidate to be nominated for the Office of President. In contrast, McCain, a Senator from Arizona, belongs to the white race like all past American presidents.
In terms of age, the two presidential candidates differ significantly. Barack Obama was born on August 4, 1961 and is currently 47 years old (BarackObama.com, 2008), while John McCain was born on August 29, 1936 and is now 72 years old (JohnMcCain.com, 2008). Although age has never been a major consideration during American elections, there are concerns about Sen. McCain’s health due to his advanced age. Conversely, some doubt whether Obama has enough experience to hold the most powerful position in the world given his relatively young age.
Moreover, the backgrounds and early lives of both Obama and McCain differ significantly. Senator Obama was born into a poor family and was raised by his grandparents and mother in Kansas. He had to take out several loans to put himself through school, eventually earning his law degree from Harvard in 1991. He became the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review (BarackObama.com, 2008).
Senator McCain has a rich military heritage; both his paternal grandfather and father were Navy Admirals with four-star ranks in the United States. McCain himself is a military veteran who attended college at the United States Naval Academy and served as a naval aviator during the Vietnam War (JohnMcCain.com, 2008). His plane was shot down in Northern Vietnam, where he was held as a prisoner of war for more than five years. Despite repeated torture by his Vietnamese captors who wanted valuable information from him, McCain refused to cooperate with them. He was finally released in 1973 (JohnMcCain.com, 2008).
Generally, both presidential candidates have largely different stands on major issues in the United States. One of the most significant differences is their views on the country’s economy, which is a crucial concern as it has been on a downslide for the past several months.
Obama would remove nearly all of the tax cuts placed by current US president George Bush such as capital gains taxes. He also proposes “middle class tax cuts” that range from $500 to $1,000 (Whittington, 2008). Additionally, he is against fresh free trade initiatives in most parts of Latin America and has promised to make major investments in education, basic science and technology. Obama would also provide relief to homes that are tangled in the credit crunch on housing and hunt down illegal credit card practices if he is elected president (Whittington, 2008). Furthermore, he plans to enlarge the family leave act.
McCain would retain all of the tax cuts imposed by President Bush and remove the Alternate Minimum Tax (Whittington, 2008). He would also double the amount of personal exemption for dependents, reduce the corporate tax rate from 35% to 25%, and establish a new tax credit for research and development in the United States. Additionally, unlike Obama, McCain would support most free trade initiatives (Whittington, 2008).
In terms of foreign trade policies, both Obama and McCain want the country to engage more in international trade as this would boost the American economy. Both presidential candidates intend to limit barriers in trade and create effective global trading rules that would benefit not only the US but also other countries (Diffen.com, 2008).
However, the main difference between their international trade policies is that Obama’s thrust would be on making the succeeding generation of American workers more competitive by strengthening education quality. Meanwhile, McCain’s focus would be on boosting the economy and providing more jobs for Americans (Diffen.com, 2008).
Another major difference between the two presidential hopefuls is their views on the country’s foreign policies and international relations, particularly on the war in Iraq. In 2002, when the United States Congress passed a Senate resolution that would authorize the Iraq war, Obama voted against it while McCain voted in favor of it. This shows that both have significantly different views on the matter (Diffen.com, 2008).
Obama has vocally opposed the war and repeatedly stated that he would call for withdrawing American troops from Iraq if elected president. He prefers to resolve conflicts with other countries through diplomatic means (Whittington, 2008). On the other hand, McCain wants to retain American soldiers in Iraq and believes it would be wrong to pull them out before defeating Al-Qaida – an international terrorist organization (Diffen.com, 2008).
The two candidates also differ in their views on Iran’s threat – a country reportedly amassing nuclear weapons. Obama does not consider Iran a real threat to US security while McCain believes otherwise. If elected president, Obama plans to use diplomatic means to confront this issue while McCain intends to form alliances with European countries and put pressure on Iran to cease its nuclear activities (Diffen.com, 2008).
In short, although both Obama and McCain have plans and views that they believe would lead to a promising future for the United States, their methods of achieving their objectives are significantly different. Obama is considered the more diplomatic presidential candidate, while McCain is seen as more aggressive.
References
BarackObama.com (2008) presents Barack Obama and Joe Biden: The Change We Need.” The website provides information about the candidates and their campaign. To learn more, visit http://www.barackobama.com/index.php. Retrieved on September 11, 2008.
Diffen.com (2008) compared the economic policies of Barack Obama and John McCain. The article can be retrieved from http://www.diffen.com/difference/Barack_Obama_vs_John_McCain#Differences_in_Economic_Policy.
JohnMcCain.com (2008) presents the McCain-Palin 2008 campaign. The website can be accessed at http://www.johnmccain.com/About/. The information was retrieved on September 11, 2008.
Whittington, M. (2008). John McCain vs. Barack Obama on the Issues.” Associated Content. Retrieved September 11, 2008 from http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/804207/john_mccain_vs_barack_obama_on_the.html.
