Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Stupid Reasons To Fear Obama

There’s a lot of talk about how Obama could be perceived as a scary individual, and therefore is not trustworthy of running our country. There is also a doubt as to whether or not he would offer our soldiers the respect they deserve, seeing as how he has never served in combat. But I don’t think just because he has never seen action on the battlefield is enough to say that he doesn’t value our troops. I would think that everybody in America supports our troops.

Then there’s that word play. Barack Hussein Obama. Hussein! “Barack sounds like Iraq!” “Obama is like Osama!” “You can’t say of abomination without Obama!” “The only difference between Obama and Osama is the BS!” “Obama Biden is just a few letters away from Osama bin Laden!”

But none of that really matters. If you watched the presidential debates, and many haven’t apparently, you can see that both Obama and McCain have a clear understanding of our current situation, what happened to get us here, and how we can improve our state going forward. But, there are key differences between McCain and Obama that make it obvious that Obama has an edge, in more ways than one. McCain tends to repeat himself, and when searching for new things to say, has more difficulty than Obama. Indeed, Obama seems to be knowledgeable on pretty much every political subject. When McCain tried to throw him a curveball, pointing out that Obama hadn’t mentioned the situation with vouchers in Washington, DC, Obama immediately replied and made it clear that he knew exactly what was going on there, and that he’d taken that into account in his previous statement.

Obama seems quicker on his feet, more knowledgeable, and less prone to using force to win an argument. There was a debate in which McCain had forcefully interrupted Obama, and talked over him. Obama acted calmly and rationally, and allowed McCain to proceed. So McCain may have “won” that moment by speaking loudly and continually, but when you weigh the ideas that each is expressing, it seems that Obama comes out on top. Perhaps this is evidence of a major difference between the two. Obama did interrupt McCain, or tried to interject rather, when McCain said things that Obama considered to be false. But Obama didn’t continue to speak and try to drown out McCain, whereas McCain had done that at one point to Obama. What if this means that McCain is more likely to use force to resolve a situation than ideas or diplomacy? And wouldn’t that mean that Obama is more for diplomacy and smart thinking, and less for unnecessary war? But what do I know.

If you liked this post, please subscribe to my RSS feed.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Obama, JFK for the 21st Century

I read a report a while ago speculating that if the economy were to take the center stage, a Democrat would likely win the Presidential election. On the other hand, if war and military concerns became more prevalent, the Republicans would likely win.

A few months ago McCain was doing great. Military concerns were of great importance. But now the economy is really hurting. Looks like Obama’s got a major chance.

Just this morning I was reading that the $700 billion bailout will apparently take a little while before it produces any helpful results. That delay by itself caused widespread doubt and other negative feelings that led to a drop in the stock market of around 500 to 600 points. The last time I looked at it, it was under 10,000. Around 9,800 or 9,700. Crazy.

I’ve also heard that there are fears America’s economic woes will lead to a cascade effect that affects many nations. So obviously Obama has his work cut out for him.

He certainly does seem a little bit like what I have heard of JFK, in that he is a highly inspirational leader. I hope he can live up to his image, and do everything he says he can.

If you liked this post, please subscribe to my RSS feed.