I STAND ON INTEGRITY!

Some of you may peruse my Facebook or MySpace profile and get confused. He's for Kucinich. He's for Obama. He enjoyed Bill Clinton's book "My Life." Is he a "flip-flopper?"

No, I'm not a flip-flopper. I discern very early who I find to have the most integrity. I'm also smart, though. I get behind the candidate that has the best chance to be the nominee AND have the most integrity and connection to the common people.

So! In 1992, I like Paul Tsongas, but I was behind Tom Harkin. Bill Clinton ended up being the Democratic Nominee. Go figure. I was 15.

Then came 2004. Representative Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio was the candidate for me, but I didn't make it to vote in the NC Primary. So, I had picked Kerry to be the nominee. I was right. I worked hard...and was disappointed...again!

So, then comes the 2008 cycle. My father and I BOTH were starstruck with the potential presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama of Illinois.

I was linked through my gut with John Edwards for his fight against poverty and Dennis Kucinich for his strong and solid/consistent stance against the War in Iraq.

Then Governor Bill Richardson of the New Mexico entered the race. He stood against the war and he had diplomatic experience in the area in question.

So, what was a Southern Liberal to do???

Well, here's what I did:

I worked one day for Bill Richardson's campaign gathering info. about the health care and retirements of fire fighters and police men and women. Then I got a bad taste in my mouth....it HAPPENS in politics!

Then I ordered my true colors from www.kucinich.us. Dennis Kucinich was my candidate of conscience and personal integrity. I stuck with him until the end...when my heart was broken...seriously!

The logical transition was to the historic and obviously full-of-integrity campaign of Senator Barack Obama of Illinois.

I haven't regretted a moment since. It's good to vote your conscience twice (once in New Mexico for Kucinich and once in NC for Obama) and then the third time this November!!!

I challenge ALL of you to go to www.barackobama.com and www.johnmccain.com and just PAY ATTENTION to what's going on and then tell me if you can honestly and with the full integrity of self vote for Senator John McCain!

I imagine most of you will have that nagging feeling. Barack Obama is the real deal. He's human. He's flawed....but he stands for ALL of us. If you stand on your integrity too, you'll vote for the truest change of your lifetime and vote OBAMA in November!

In Peace Always,
Asa A. Gregory