I wrote a snarky convention diary yesterday which drew a little return fire, which was mostly meaningless one liners. You are a dickhead etc. It did not accomplish the purpose of starting a discussion of why we support Obama and why we believe in him other than he is a democrat and we have no choice.
Look! I have put my money where my mouth is. I supported Edwards with donations and was very upset when he dropped out. I did not detect his flaws just as I did not detect Bill’s similar flaws, which I consider to be politically meaningless. It took me some time to decide between Clinton and Obama and I did so on the basis that Clinton would be a good democratic leader in the old way and on the other hand Obama said he represented change and I assumed he meant change from the Corporation run beltway way.
I wish we could elect a board of governors from DKos and run them for president but alas it is not to be. We are stuck with Obama for better or worse. I for one would like to explore what the worse might be. So far Obama has gotten a free ride for any and all actions not DKos stamped " good for America". To establish my bona fides, since deciding on Obama vs Clinton I have made two contributions to Obama which were on the large side for me. Incidentally I have also made similar contributions to house candidates not from my state.
Now, without being snarky or drawing comparisons I would like to have some concrete reasons to support Obama other than he is slender, makes an excellent speech, is hansom, has a pretty wife, is a good family man, is colored and promises change. Hitler did most of those things and was a disaster while Gandhi did few and was an historically good statesman. If the most ardent Obama supporters cannot convince me to dig deeper for him then how can the reluctant Hillary and the Independent’s be convinced.
On the plus side I was very pleased with his pick of Biden and also his decision to reject public financing which showed good sense and leadership, however both could have been advisor decisions not his. Let me also consent to all the campaign promises which we all know hold very little water when the chips are down. On to the things about Obama which keep me awake at night and which will most certainly be talking points of the opposition.
FISA! Why did Obama vote for this. He said it was because there were some positive things included which he favored without specifying what things. Case closed period. Case reopened. I think we all agree that FISA is unconstitutional and agree that Obama knew it was. What could be the possible reason, after all he is a sitting senator and this violates his sacred oath to defend the constitution. With my limited thinking ability which was vividly pointed out in the comments of my previously mentioned, poorly written, snarky post I can think of three. First he wants to preserve the powers Bush has accumulated for himself. With a democratic house and senate he would have a free hand just as Bush had. On the plus side maybe he thinks he will need those powers to prevent terrorist attacks since that is basically a task for police and intelligence not military might. Lastly, his vote against FISA and an attack before the election could result in defeat. I favor this one because I want desperately to believe. Please strengthen this or come up with other reasons for his support for FISA. This move was politically damaging and I am still getting emails about it.
Obama makes great use of his vote against the war but he does not say it was because he did extraordinary research of the available intel. Was it just political reasoning that this war, as most wars do, would become unpopular before Bush left office? If so this wins politically but does not qualify him as a progressive statesman. Anyone want to expand this?
Since my family is very involved in healthcare both as givers and receivers, I am disappointed in Obama’s approach. I heard his chief economists say on CNN yesterday that they intended to reduce the waste and thus the premiums would become affordable. He added some other craziness but that was the pitch. Healthcare is at least as big a problem for Americans as the Iraq war is. If Obama really believes this then I think our own Bondad would give him an F. Insurance companies are the ones inflicting horrors on our people and must be taken out of the loop. If Obama believes the insurance companies are going to voluntarily reduce premiums or stop trying to reduce healthcare to increase profits then he is hopelessly naïve. Why not swing for the fences and go for universal healthcare such as Canada and corral some repug votes. At least this is better than McCain whom will do nothing because he is a no good corporate pandering self serving scoundrel.
The Boss, Pelosi, when given the big stick, immediatly forgot about riening in the current adminstration and instead concentrated on building a legislative record that her great grand children could be proud of. Was she a success or what? Her speech was riviting to say the least.She and searchlight Reid never had enough votes, were constantly foiled by the evil GOP which constantly threw sand in thier eyes, and used all the arcane legislative tricks which must have only recently been discovered since our heros did not use them during the previous six years.
Well folks there it is. We can put no faith in either Nancy or Harry to perform their duty and oath regardless of whom is president so all our chips are on Obama or McCain. Is Obama Hitler or Ghandi? What evidence other than websites and speeches do we have?