Barack Obama: My Candidate.

Along with 20,000+ other Seattleites, I trekked to the Seattle Center to see Obama speak on Friday. Despite my stereotypical demographic (young, college, male) overwhelmingly favoring Obama, I have to say that I really feel inspired by him.

The way he can ignite an entire arena in applause, how he handles casual and professional situations, and of course the politics of change. Today, I went and caucused with thousands of other citizens in Seattle and my precinct overwhelming voted delegates for Obama.

I really think he can do it.

Take a look at the video I made of the event:

What’s he got to offer on the policy front?

[quote]BostonBarrister wrote:
What’s he got to offer on the policy front?[/quote]

Change!

[quote]tedro wrote:
BostonBarrister wrote:
What’s he got to offer on the policy front?

Change![/quote]

Damn, you guys beat me to it.

Obama can talk forever and say absolutely nothing. How can any thinking person fall that?

How many Presidential elections in a row have candidates been championing “change”?

And if he is all about change - he must want to stop spending, right? Right?

…That’s what I thought.

I really, really hope the OP comes back to explain this one.

He spanked Hillary tonight. I can’t help but cheer the guy on as I want the Clinton era to end.

I’d take him over Hillary, but I think that, like Carter, he’d make a good secretary of state, but too weak to make a descent president. That, and I’ve heard quite a few of his speeches and he never says anything but a lot of warm fuzzy words that don’t mean anything.

[quote]rainjack wrote:
How many Presidential elections in a row have candidates been championing “change”?

And if he is all about change - he must want to stop spending, right? Right?

…That’s what I thought. [/quote]

Hey,change doesn’t come cheap!

[quote]tedro wrote:

Change![/quote]

We need someone to approach Obama and ask him to break a hundred dollar bill.

Could someone please explain, in a short summary, how Obama proposes to change a system that has basically been in place since the 1940s? How he plans to deal with the 10 trillion dollar Federal debt, which we’ll hit in 2010? How he will deal with the 59 trillion dollar debt load we’ve all signed on to, over the next 50 years?

This system is going to end with a Big Bang and only someone of the order of a George Washington will be capable of holding it together. Is Obama that man?

[quote]Uncle Gabby wrote:
[…] but too weak to make a descent president. [/quote]

Weak in what sense?

[quote]Mick28 wrote:
Change is simply a marketing ploy. And all the knuckle heads who swallow this swill are applauding him. Fortunately, for the rest of us, his “huge following” is mostly made up of young people and African Americans. Neither group votes in large numbers.

Question:

What has he done in his young life which qualifies him to become President of the United States of America?

Nada.[/quote]

Well he is rich. Apparently, that’s the only qulification you need to be president. I detest Hillary with an unbelievable passion, but I don’t think Obama bin laden will be any better.
BTW, any of you who think a democrat will start bringing troops home from Iraq immediately are on crack. We broke it, we bought it. Nothing is going to change that.

[quote]lixy wrote:
Uncle Gabby wrote:
[…] but too weak to make a descent president.

Weak in what sense?[/quote]

Given the current geopolitical climate, the next U.S. President will very likely have to stick his (or God forbid, her) neck out and make a risky, heavily criticized decision that will undoubtedly piss off a huge number of people.

Many, myself included, feel that Obama doesn’t have the stones to make this decision, and will instead try to keep everybody happy with some half-assed “compromise” that does nothing but allow the problem to fester until someone “strong” enough comes along and tackles it head-on.

I have no doubt that McCain could make a decision like this.
I doubt Hillary could, but she could surprise me.
I have no doubt that Obama could not make a decision like this.

[quote]Uncle Gabby wrote:
I’d take him over Hillary, but I think that, like Carter, he’d make a good secretary of state, but too weak to make a descent president. That, and I’ve heard quite a few of his speeches and he never says anything but a lot of warm fuzzy words that don’t mean anything.[/quote]

I thought that was what politics was about.

Had Bush mentioned EVERYTHING he would end up doing while in office, maybe he wouldn’t have been voted for in the first place.

[quote]tGunslinger wrote:
lixy wrote:
Uncle Gabby wrote:
[…] but too weak to make a descent president.

Weak in what sense?

Given the current geopolitical climate, the next U.S. President will very likely have to stick his (or God forbid, her) neck out and make a risky, heavily criticized decision that will undoubtedly piss off a huge number of people.

Many, myself included, feel that Obama doesn’t have the stones to make this decision, and will instead try to keep everybody happy with some half-assed “compromise” that does nothing but allow the problem to fester until someone “strong” enough comes along and tackles it head-on.

I have no doubt that McCain could make a decision like this.
I doubt Hillary could, but she could surprise me.
I have no doubt that Obama could not make a decision like this.[/quote]

You seem to put a lot of faith in these people based on how they act in public. I am not saying I know better, but I am saying I would never write that I “know” what decisions McCain or Hillary could make once in office.

[quote]Professor X wrote:
You seem to put a lot of faith in these people based on how they act in public. I am not saying I know better, but I am saying I would never write that I “know” what decisions McCain or Hillary could make once in office.

[/quote]

Call it a gut feeling.

[quote]tGunslinger wrote:

Given the current geopolitical climate, the next U.S. President will very likely have to stick his (or God forbid, her) neck out and make a risky, heavily criticized decision that will undoubtedly piss off a huge number of people.

Many, myself included, feel that Obama doesn’t have the stones to make this decision, and will instead try to keep everybody happy with some half-assed “compromise” that does nothing but allow the problem to fester until someone “strong” enough comes along and tackles it head-on.

I have no doubt that McCain could make a decision like this.
I doubt Hillary could, but she could surprise me.
I have no doubt that Obama could not make a decision like this.[/quote]

Correct - nothing in Obama’s past, present, or future suggests he would do well when faced with difficult decisions. The Oval Office is where the buck is supposed to stop, and Obama has given no evidence that he could handle the job.

In his brief and pedestrian stint in the Illinois legislature, when faced with controversial votes, he routinely voted “Present”. When the Joint Chiefs of Staff knock on his door at 2AM and inform him the Iranian president has closed the Strait of Hormuz, a President Obama doesn’t get to vote “Present”.

Further, as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Subcommittee on European Affairs in January of 2007, and despite the oft-repeated need to “rebuild relationships with our allies”, Chairman Obama has held exactly zero policy meetings during his tenure.

And Obama, despite his advertising schtick, certainly hasn’t acted in a “post-partisan” method while serving in the Senate.

He has done nothing to suggest he can lead or govern - the only thing he is good at is mobilizing legions of navel-gazers with vacuous rhetoric about “change”. Call me demanding, but a little bit more is needed to fill out the suit of Leader of the Free World.

[quote]thunderbolt23 wrote:

Correct - nothing in Obama’s past, present, or future suggests he would do well when faced with difficult decisions. The Oval Office is where the buck is supposed to stop, and Obama has given no evidence that he could handle the job.[/quote]

Just so I know, could you tell me what Bush had in his “past, present or future” that suggested he would “do well when faced with difficult decisions”? Did Bush do well? Were you right?

I’m just here to learn.