It seems like 99% of all the politicians from all the different parties are cut from the same mold. They all have slightly different messages and slants left or right, but basically it’s all the same. A politician is a politician is a politician.
Barack Obama defies these stereotypes.
An early opponent of the war in Iraq, Obama had the courage to speak out and voice his opposition, even though at the time – because of the hysteria Bush had drummed up, reminiscent of the Joe McCarthy era – it was considered un-patriotic to oppose the war.
That really was a courageous act. Obama has maintained that position – that the Iraq war is wrong and that we must get our troops out – consistently since the war started.
The war in Iraq is one of the biggest problems we now face.
Obama has promised to get our troops out – and for that reason alone, I would vote for him. McCain’s “we’ll keep the troops there for 100 years or as long as it takes” is just completely intolerable.
But there are other reasons I support Obama, as well.
Chiefly, I get the same sort of sense from Obama that I got from John Kennedy – the impression that he will bring a whole new type of reform to the country. An impression that it will no longer be business as usual in Washington DC.
Obama brings a fresh, new, exciting perspective to the presidency.
I’ll admit that early on, I was uneasy with him on some levels, precisely because of that – actually for many of the same reasons I’ve criticized Sarah Palin. Obama just wasn’t a recognized national player, like Hillary Clinton or maybe John Kerry. I didn’t really know anything about him other that he was charismatic and a helluva good speaker.
But the more I’ve learned about him, the less I found to worry about.
This is because unlike Palin, Obama has done his homework. He may have only had his senate seat for three years, but they’ve been a good three years – a productive time.
And a really big plus – his preparatory work and resume are extremely impressive – this includes a law degree from Harvard, where he also worked as the editor of the prestigious Harvard Law Review. After graduating with a Juris Doctor degree, magna cum laude, he taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School for 12 years. He became a published author before he was famous, just on the strength of his writing. He practiced civil rights litigation law. He worked as a community organizer. He served as a state legislator for seven years, until his election to the US senate in 2004.
On the other hand, Palin graduated highschool in 1982 then attended four different, obscure colleges before finally graduating from the University of Idaho with a BSc degree in communications, in 1987. During that time, she won the Miss Wasilla beauty pageant, then competed in the 1984 Miss Alaska pageant, taking second runner-up. In 1988 she worked as a sports reporter for two local Anchorage TV stations and a local newspaper. Following that, she was elected to the Wasilla city council in 1992, and then severed as a two-term Mayor from 1996 to 2002. In 2006, she was elected as Governor of Alaska.
There is no comparison between the two people at all. It’s like apples and oranges, as they say.
Palin is a self-described small-town “soccer mom,” who until a couple months ago, apparently had no aspirations whatsoever outside Alaska. She is patently not qualified to run for or serve as vice president, much less president. Maybe in 10-15 years – but not now.
Obama, on the other hand, is a super high-achiever who appears to have been preparing for the job of president all his life.
It will be hard to undo all the damage done to this country and the world generally by a total of 24 years of different recent republican administrations. That legacy includes the policy of “trickle-down” economics that precipitated the current Wall Street/banking crisis, it includes the two wars we’re mired in, as well as the attendant loss of our civil rights, and includes all the other failed republican policies.
It will be hard and it may even be painful. But I think Obama has the best shot at effecting change and getting us out of all these messes.
I’m going to vote for Barack Obama on Tuesday November 4th. I hope you do as well.