This year I will be voting for Sen. John McCain for president. This is because Sen. McCain takes realistic stances on his positions, while Sen. Obama’s positions only reflect what he wishes to be true.

For example, Obama believes that the rich should be taxed significantly more than the middle class, even though the basic economic theory — the tax cuts of the Kennedy and Reagan administrations, and our founding fathers — say differently.

Obama believes that health care and education should be paid for by the government and ignores the fact that subsidizing health care, education or anything else for that matter is, by far, the best way to drive up the price.

Obama believes that investing in renewable energy is the only reasonable solution to our energy problems. It seems that, since Obama wants us to be only a few years away from having the majority of our energy needs met by things other than fossil fuels, it is automatically true. If this were not the case, he might advocate things like drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to increase our energy supply until we get to that point.

Obama believes that the minimum wage should be raised to $9.50 per hour, even though economists overwhelmingly agree that the minimum wage creates unemployment and drives out low-skilled workers. With this new minimum wage, nobody without the skills to generate $9.50 per hour of profit would be hired, nor would they be given the chance to acquire those skills. And then more of your tax money would have to go toward their welfare. It only takes a bit of common sense to understand this, yet Obama ignores this because he does not wish it to be true.

The first thing you see on Obama’s Web site is the phase “Powered by hope.” That phrase summarizes his campaign better than anything else I’ve heard. It’s not powered by logic, economic knowledge, rational behavior or common sense. Just hope.

If you think that what Obama hopes to be true is enough to fix all of our problems, then you should go ahead and vote for him next Tuesday. But if you choose to believe what you see instead of seeing what you believe, then I invite you to join me in voting for John McCain on Nov. 4.

— Blake Hasenmiller is a senior in industrial engineering and economics from DeWitt