Please, Dems, don’t mess up this one: vote for Obama
I am a huge political junkie and I have been closely following Europe and US politics for more than 5 years. After this time and several disappointments, I have to admit that Obama is the first truly inspirational politician I have seen (listen to the Yes We Can song based on his New Hampshire speech).
Some of his detractors dismiss his speeches as lousy, empty or vague, but you just have to listen to a couple of them to see that he is genuinely smart (such as the one about faith and atheism or the interview at Google).
He doesn’t only take the right stance on most issues that I care about (Iraq, foreign policy, ethics, net neutrality, …), but he does it in a sincere way. Obama just gets it. I have got this impression from watching several of his speeches and interviews, but Marc Andreessen had the chance to spend an hour and a half with him a year ago and got the very same feeling.
The main argument against Barack Obama nowadays is his alleged lack of experience. “Watch how I run my campaign”, Barack said to Marc when inquired about that. It’s obvious that running a primary campaign isn’t the same as being POTUS, but being the president’s wife isn’t exactly the same either.
So if we compare the Obama and Hillary campaigns we can easily see Hillary’s experience as an “old school” politician. She overstates, lies, accepts loads of money from lobbies (because “they represent people too”, haha), resorts to fear-mongering (“Obama is not a muslim, …, as far as I know”, 3 a.m. ad), sides with McCain if needed to get some extra votes, surrounds herself with nitwits, … . To summarize, she uses every dirty trick she has learned in these years in Washington, and that’s exactly what I am so sick of right now.
On the other hand, Obama’s campaign hasn’t just been one of the best organized and executed campaigns I have ever seen, but also the cleanest one. He has managed to overcome double-digit Hillary leads in most states without having to resort to any of these experienced politician’s dirty tricks. If I have to trust one of the two to run a country, the decision is obvious.
If I didn’t manage to convince you, I hope Lawrence Lessig and xkcd’s Randall Munroe do.
Obama is leading and almost there, he just needs the final push. Please, do the right thing.
March 15th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
Yes, but who wrote his speech? Will he live up to anything he says once faced with the reality of presidential power, advisors, hidden agendas, etc.?
More importantly, by lending your vote in this election which might go well for once, you legitimise the next election, which might go as badly as the one that elected Bush.
We need a new system, which is less prone to the whims of one person, one way of thinking, one subculture. We need to get rid of the idea of one leader making decisions, and vote directly on what we know and care about instead.
March 15th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
I know his speech was probably written by another person (or group of), but in interviews and debates I still find him inspirational. I have also watched some old speeches from around four years ago and they were quite good back then too.
Of course the system can be greatly improved, but, unless you have a really good plan to do that and we can start working on it right now, I guess having Obama as president is much better than having Hillary or McCain.
IMHO Obama’s stance on government ethics and transparency is a step in the right direction anyway.
March 15th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
Obama is the worst choice for anyone who cares about individual freedom and not being taxed into oblivion. Don’t get me wrong, all of the candidates are bad choices, but Obama is the last one I would want to see as president. Are his stances not the most important thing, which you apparently don’t agree with, and yet you are recommending him?
And what kind of ethics does he really have if he can sit and listen to that preacher of his for 20 years? I would never sit in the pews of someone like that. There also could certainly be nothing worse than someone who wants to ban all firearms, the very tools that give us our freedom and help defend it, as well as personal defense. Just read the words of the founding fathers when it comes to arms or anything for that matter, they couldn’t be more right.
March 15th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
bynarmir, I agree with him in most issues. I guess you probably skipped the “only” in my sentence:
“He doesn
March 15th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
Nice article about Obama from a colleague at the University of Chicago Law School: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-oped0314obamamar14,0,7185898.story
March 16th, 2008 at 2:07 am
THis guy is a scary racist and communist. Who would want him for president? He’s obviously a puppet for the CFR/UN.
No thanks.
I’m buying more guns in anticipation of some lousy commie being elected.
March 16th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
Awe, I indeed did miss the only, I suppose there is no hope for you then.
March 24th, 2008 at 1:16 am
“A puppet of CFR/UN”? Are we still hearing this bullshit, even after 8 disastrous years of “we do it our way, and shut up”? My goodness, what does it take to understand?