“Don’t blame me, I voted McCain!”

A recent Rasmussen poll found that 40 percent of those polled strongly disapproved of President Barack Obama’s performance in office. With all of the criticism Obama is receiving lately, the pro-McCain phrase will probably be plastered on the bumpers of a brave minority who saw through Obama’s, to quote Sarah Palin, “hope-y, change-y” rhetoric.

Increasingly, those who fell for the president’s idealistic vision are being targeted as gullible idealists, incapable of understanding that John McCain was the better candidate for the job.

Obviously, right? The man who chose Sarah Palin, a woman scarcely capable of uttering a coherent sentence, to be his vice president demonstrated nothing but clear thinking and responsible decision making.

Wrong. So, let’s disavow ourselves of the notion that voters were too starry-eyed to realize that McCain was a better choice than Obama.

There are many reasons why Obama was elected. The biggest and most obvious reason: This country needed a change.

Regardless of your political affiliation, it is clear that the George W. Bush administration strained the American psyche. Some contributing factors included the continuation of an unpopular war, the support for big oil, the support for large corporations, the blurring of church and state lines, the encouragement via tax rebates of purchasing the least fuel efficient cars possible and even something as simple as Bush’s post-sentence smirk.

The 2008 election offered us (and the rest of the world) an opportunity to recuperate from eight years of questionable leadership.

Out of the ashes rose a candidate who vowed to improve international relationships, address global warming (which is not, contrary to popular belief, being “debunked” because of snow storms), help the middle class, improve the circumstances of marginalized members of our own country and do something constructive about the war.

He was classy, friendly, funny and seemed less inclined to be rude and dismissive of the people running against him.

McCain didn’t do those things. He didn’t inspire us. He didn’t make us feel like he was going to lead and change things for the better. He did, however, make witty pet names for his political opponents, ones like, “That One,” in reference to Obama, whom he was debating.

The difference between Obama and McCain, the one that really matters, the one that got Obama elected, is that Obama represented a future that Americans wanted. McCain didn’t.

Obama promised those things that we felt would improve the state of our country. McCain didn’t.

Sure, Obama’s eloquence may have helped, but we’re not so dumb as a people to vote solely on the basis of solid sentence structure and a good speaking voice.

It’s easy to say that Obama supporters failed to think rationally during the 2008 elections. But then, they could say the same about McCain voters.

The truth is that the leadership in America failed for too long. In the end, we chose to elect someone who didn’t represent that failure.

We chose change, and reasonably so.

Reach Becky at rrubens1@asu.edu