You Can Thank Me Later
Since the entire country is abuzz and atwitter over the presumptive Democratic nominee for President, Sen. Barack Obama, from my very own state of Illinois, I suppose I should note my take on that whole situation, for all eternity. This is the Internet, after all; opinions must be expressed!
So, here goes.
He has done nothing of note, in the U.S. Senate or at any level of Illinois government. Go ahead, try and find something important with his name attached to it.
His policies change with the wind, or more accurately, with the changing needs of the group he is pandering to at the moment. And they are all left-wing; his voting record proves it. There is no substantive difference between him and Hillary Clinton and just about any other standard issue Dem in today's party. Which is not surprising, really, since the party lionizes victimhood over any and all actual, you know, ideas.
He is a product of a corrupt political Democratic machine; if you want to believe it is possible to get anywhere in that system without being one of them, and without owing lots of favors at this point in his career, be my guest. I'll pass.
For twenty years, he belonged to a church run by a racist preacher, even naming his book "Audacity of Hope" from a phrase borrowed from the preacher, which to me says either (a) he bought into the racist victim-hood twaddle, hook, line, and sinker, or (b) he already believed it, or (c) he cynically pretended to believe it in order to profit from the book. None of these positions can win an election, which Obama finally realized, so he dumped the guy whose guidance he valued for twenty years. Hmmm. Either he is as clueless as it gets for those twenty years, or he is a political operator of Machiavellian magnitude. Let's be charitable, and assume its not both.
His association with known unrepentant-terrorist-turned-Ed-school-professor Bill Ayers seems, at the very least, inconvenient, and at worst, quite damning. Ayers is still as anti-American as he was in his Weathermen days, only now he does it from within the ivory towers, as a professor of education. Obama has been associated with him for decades. Ayers is an activist, and wouldn't partner with anybody who didn't buy into his vision.
His wife appears to be a bit of a nutcase. Or maybe she is a Republican cyborg.
I have to wonder, is there anybody from his past that is NOT an embarrassment?
And then, of course, he wanted to bring troops home, just in time to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Of course, all Democrats -- except Lieberman and maybe a few others -- were in favor of giving up as quickly as possible, and continuing to send the message to the world that America has no will to see anything through, and will give up at the first sign of struggle. How could they have foreseen that Iraq would turn miraculously around in the span of 18 months due to the leadership of two people: President Bush, and Gen. Petraeus? Damn that resolve and fortitude, and learning from mistakes!
His main accomplishment, then, seems to be a genetic gift: he's attractive, and part black. Like Billie Holiday, except prettier.
And he speaks very well, which is definitely a positive for any politician. I wish Bush had some of Obama's public speaking chops. But being an excellent public speaker doesn't help you be an effective leader or CEO, which is really what a President is. His rhetoric about "hope" and "change" is nice. It is also completely devoid of true meaning, and is just a faux-clever way of saying "I'm not Bush". Good thing he cleared that up, I was getting a little confused for a minute!
From what I can gather, "hope" means we should resort to our old ways of pretending we are weak in order to, I don't know, make other nations feel better? Here's what I hope: that the American people come to their senses sometime before November.
And by "change" he means raise taxes, increase the influence and cost of government in our lives, and appoint Left-leaning Supreme Court Justices for life. And talk to the Iranians without pre-conditions, and trust the U.N. implicitly, and sign away economic growth for illusory carbon offset gains which will do nothing for our planet (since warming is largely caused by the sun, which heats up the oceans, which produces CO2 as a by-product, like 800 years later, and so our piddly little manmade contribution -- .02% increase in CO2, from .0035 to .0037, or whatever it is -- is hardly something to stake our future over).
And any of a million other goofy, nanny-state, big-government, high-tax, anti-capitalist, anti-free-market, pork-laden "initiatives" he and his Cabinet, and the corrupt cowards in Congress, can cook up.
Just what we don't need.
And just to be clear, no, I'm not a racist, and I don't have anything against a black man or woman becoming President. The color of somebody's skin means nothing to me, as long as it means nothing to them, too. I value ideas and principles, grounded in experience and history, and people who have the vision and leadership to rally others behind them to implement those ideas and principles.
So I wouldn't vote for him if he was white, yellow, pink, or blue, either. Or a woman. I wouldn't vote for him if he was able to shoot sunshine and cookies out of his hind end. At this point, he looks to me like the 2008 version of Jimmy Carter, who gets my vote as Worst President of the post-WWII era.
And so, from here anyway, it seems that based mainly on his appearance, his race, and his ability to sound good while saying nothing of note, he has been anointed by large chunks of our population who are impressed by such things. Unfortunately, he is not an actor, trying out for a part of President, where it's all about presence, and elocution, and looks. If it were, Denzell Washington would be a better pick; he's better looking, and at least projects an image of a real man. I hate to say this, but it sure does look like the American population is treating this like a movie, and they're just voting for the one who makes them feel good. Prove me wrong, America!
The job of President is about surrounding yourself with good people who can execute on your vision, and who rely on your for leadership, to make the tough calls. Obama hasn't even complete a single term in the Senate yet. And Senators mostly make lousy presidential candidates, because the skills needed to excel in that office are quite different from the skills needed to excel as President. And the advisers he's got now are a bunch of retreads from the Clinton years.
People are free to think whatever they like, and believe in whatever they like, and vote for whoever they like, for whatever reason they like. Barack Obama is what he is: an inexperienced, big government, tax-and-spend, anti-war, anti-business, lefty. And the fact that he is young, gifted, and black doesn't alter those facts at all.