I’m getting ready to run away to buy books so I can started on my (mountain of) homework for this week. But before I do…
I generally work very hard to keep my mouth shut about politics. I find that the way that most people talk about politics is very difficult for me in a variety of reasons, so I am really picky about who I talk to about politics. But uhm…
I’m voting for Barack Obama. I have done more research on him than I have ever done on any other politician and everything I find makes me respect him more. He is the only candidate I have looked into who actually pushes for teacher accountability (now there’s a hot button for people). He is pushing for a lot of open government things that I believe in. And I’ll honestly say that listening to the man speak makes my eyes tear up and my heart soar. He has charisma oozing out of his pores. He inspires hope and I think our country needs that. I’m ok with people disagreeing with me and if you want to vociferously do so in comments I probably will read and not respond.
But yeah. He makes me hope and I think I need more of that in my life and in my country. I would encourage people who don’t know much about him to do some research and consider him as an option.
(Thanks for the reminder Cos.)
I love to hear him speak.
I hope he is a worthy repository for your trust.
I think Obama’s got my vote, too. He got a large chunk of me when I saw his speech he gave at Google. O … M … G! Just nailed it … he took the passion you see in most of his speeches and applied it to a tech audience … talking about net neutrality, etc.
a couple of things trouble me about him
I definitely agree that Obama has charisma, but Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton both had lots of that, yet most people vehemently dislike one or the other, so I’m not sure that’s necessarily an important qualification.
But what really troubles me about Barack Obama are:
– His associations with people who I find grossly anti-semitic: the pastor of his church and spiritual advisor Jeremiah Wright praises Louis Farakhan and when asked about it Obama doesn’t denounce him, and one of his major foreign policy advisors is Robert Malley, who supports Hamas openly and was a former advisor to Yasser Arafat.
– His support for drivers licenses for illegal immigrants: If we need workers, we should change the immigration laws and establish a legal way for workers to be here, but I think that people who broke the law should be punished, not given additional privileges.
– His support for government-run universal health care mandates: as a Libertarian, I have big problems with yet more expansion of government into areas that in my mind properly belong in the hands of the private sector.
Re: a couple of things trouble me about him
Yeah. I have several personal quibbles with him. While I don’t consider myself a libertarian, those quibbles could still boil down to “he’s not much of a libertarian”. Gun control, too.
I still consider him far and away the best choice, and I’m still going to vote for him.
Re: a couple of things trouble me about him
I think these things always seem to come down to a choice between the lesser of two evils. Because as Lee Iaccoca once said, when he was approached about running for president back in the 80’s, “You’d have to be crazy to want that office these days!.” Or something to that effect. I think the pressure and scrutiny of the campaign and the office in these times puts off too many people who would be so much better at the job than the people who actually run.
But still, I’m a little _too_ troubled by the anti-semitic aspects of Obama’s candidacy that I raised, more than anything else, and this will certainly prevent me from voting for him in the general election, regardless of who’s on the other side out of the current crop over there, none of whom I like very much, either, each for different reasons.
Still, I would go along as far as to say that I think Obama is WAY better than Hillary, in too many dimensions to count, and I fervently hope he at least gets the Democratic nomination and thereby puts an end to the possibility of her advancing her ambitions once and for all.
Re: a couple of things trouble me about him
Interesting. Fair enough. Guess you’re hoping it won’t boil down to Obama versus Huckabee, then, because if you’re right then that’s likely to be a pretty awful choice for Jews either way…
Re: a couple of things trouble me about him
Hoping for Guliani right now, but hope is fading with his poll numbers. I think he’s the least bad of the bunch.
I don’t think Huckabee’s evangelism is particularly threatening to the freedom or safety or comfort of the Jewish community at home or abroad. And he’s endorsed by Chuck Norris! But still, not my first choice by a longshot.
Re: a couple of things trouble me about him
I suppose that I am pretty neutral on Ronald Reagan because he went into office the year I was born and I only sorta remember most of Clinton. But you have a valid point.
Thank you for bringing up the anti-semitic point because I was entirely unaware of it. I will have to look into that more closely–we are all blinded by our biases and unfortunately mine does not always extend to being as aware of everything as I would like to be.
I believe that he does want to change the immigration policies. What I have seen indicates that he is doing what he can in that direction one step at a time. I don’t 100% think that he is doing it perfectly, but he seems to be doing better than other people.
Heh. Yeah, that health care thing sits in my craw as well. I’m pretty serious about my Libertarianism too but what I have seen of his proposals for universal health care freak me out less than say, Hillary. I am not thrilled with it, but given how open he wants government spending to be (we’ll see if that works out) I feel a little more comfortable than I do with the alternatives.
Thank you for bringing up very sound points.
Re: a couple of things trouble me about him
Thank you for the polite and rational discussion.
In general, a rare thing when people discuss politics.
And I agree about Hillary.
Re: a couple of things trouble me about him
🙂 Thus my point about political discussions and why I generally don’t have them.