Why I support Barack Obama

[Hometown]

I would greatly appreciate hearing from Barack Obama supporters about why they support their candidate.

Are there any Obama supporters out there?

[USRufnex]

Nope.

/sarcasm

[TheArtist]

I have listened to a number of his current and past speeches, read some of the things he has written and said. I find that he seems to think, see, process, and react to, the world in much the same manner as myself. Or, as my "better self" would.

[YoungTulsan]

Barry Soetoro, Muslim

[rwarn17588]

I've been leaning to Obama for a quite a while because he continues to impress me.

The more I look into his background, the more I look into the gobs of meaningful legislation he's shepherded, the more I hear his terrifically written speeches, and the more I hear of his judgment (especially his take on  the Iraq war), I see a man who's more than ready to be commander-in-chief.

That doesn't mean I wouldn't vote for Clinton or McCain (see McCain post). I think he's the best of the three.

[T Badd]

quote:Originally posted by rwarn17588

I've been leaning to Obama for a quite a while because he continues to impress me.

The more I look into his background, the more I look into the gobs of meaningful legislation he's shepherded, the more I hear his terrifically written speeches, and the more I here of his judgment (especially his take on  the Iraq war), I see a man who's more than ready to be commander-in-chief.

This.

[akupetsky]

quote:Originally posted by rwarn17588

I've been leaning to Obama for a quite a while because he continues to impress me.

The more I look into his background, the more I look into the gobs of meaningful legislation he's shepherded, the more I hear his terrifically written speeches, and the more I hear of his judgment (especially his take on  the Iraq war), I see a man who's more than ready to be commander-in-chief.

That doesn't mean I wouldn't vote for Clinton or McCain (see McCain post). I think he's the best of the three.

I potentially have a lot to say about this, but, for now, I'll say that I was very impressed with his substantive speech on Economics this past week.  Two things stood out.  First, he spoke about Congress' previous failure in the late 1990s to implement promised banking reform that might have averted the current crisis.  (In a separate article, I read that this failure was caused in part by Senator Phil Gramm (now part of McCain's campaign) hijacking the effort in order to facilitate bank mergers.))  Second, as part of his proposed solution, Obama suggested streamlining banking regulations (in addition to strengthening regulations where necessary) to prevent the paralysis that occurs when different agencies with competing jurisdictions fail to act when necessary because they only can solve a piece of the problem.  This proposal also benefits banks by making regulations more clear.  This proposal shows that Obama is willing to recognize and propose solutions that are outside of the Democratic Party "comfort zone", which backs up the argument that he can "reach across the aisle".

[we vs us]

Despite all the recent uproar, Democrats are more united now than they've been in a long time.  There's lots of agreement on the problems that need solving, and many similarities between Obama and Clinton on how to solve them.  I'm not worried too much about specifics, since I'm relatively confident that I'll be satisfied with the solutions that fall within the Obama-to-Clinton range, and any specific prescriptions will change with both the times and the makeup of Congress.  

There is one issue, though, that I think Obama is answering far better than Clinton is, and that's how a new Democratic administration will change Washington.  Behind all the feel-good-speechifying, he's done some exceptional work structuring and fine-tuning his organization, and he's embraced some revolutionary organizational tactics to get there. If you have ten minutes, this Fast Company article does an excellent job laying out some of the important intentions behind his candidacy, and the mechanisms (web-based social networks, "open" branding, etc) that have let him accomplish what he's accomplished.

It also pointedly mentions the "youth vote," but weighs it in an entirely different way than many do on this board.  Rather than seeing the Xers and the Millenials as fickle and/or spoiled -- and worse, worthless as a voting demographic -- Obama's been engaging them very specifically and as core members of his constituency, and I think that's laudable for a number of different reasons.  One, it's good for the Democrats (he's building a generational consensus, and the one taking the most advantage of the collapse of the Republican party), and it's good for the nation, because it moves our political discourse past the same old Boomer archetypes.

A Clinton/McCain general election would be the same old stuff.  It would perpetuate the same crap that we've been arguing about since Reagan.  The arguments would still be, at core, about the Vietnam War, about Civil Rights, about Hippies vs. the Country Club, etc etc etc.  Me personally, I'm sick of Boomer politics.  It's the same old thing, circling and recircling the same old issues, and nothing gets resolved.  Even though Obama is officially a late Boomer, he's done the most to try to toss off those old stereotypes and that's laudable.  

More than anything, he makes it seem as if there is a different way to go about things in this country, and in my estimation, we're at a time when we need nothing less.  He has the best chance of achieving something approaching a transformational presidency, and I'd like to give him that chance.

[Gaspar]

quote:Originally posted by rwarn17588

I've been leaning to Obama for a quite a while because he continues to impress me.

The more I look into his background, the more I look into the gobs of meaningful legislation he's shepherded, the more I hear his terrifically written speeches, and the more I hear of his judgment (especially his take on  the Iraq war), I see a man who's more than ready to be commander-in-chief.

That doesn't mean I wouldn't vote for Clinton or McCain (see McCain post). I think he's the best of the three.

His speech writer is Jon Favreau.

Obama gives good delivery, but he is not the author of any of his speeches.  That's why he likes to deliver speeches rather than debate or engage in open discussion.  

Favreau is a 26 year old genius writer.  The Obama camp has tried to keep him in the shadows as much as possible, but he is getting quite a bit of press lately for his incredible writing skill.  

[we vs us]

quote:Originally posted by Gaspar
Obama gives good delivery, but he is not the author of any of his speeches.  That's why he likes to deliver speeches rather than debate or engage in open discussion.  

That's not correct.  Favreau is his speechwriter, but he does in fact write many of his own speeches.  He wrote his most recent speech about the Reverend Wright, for instance.

As far as I know, he doesn't have a preference for canned speeches, nor does he have any problem whatsoever debating. Do you have a source for that?

[Gaspar]

quote:Originally posted by we vs us

quote:Originally posted by Gaspar
Obama gives good delivery, but he is not the author of any of his speeches.  That's why he likes to deliver speeches rather than debate or engage in open discussion.  

That's not correct.  Favreau is his speechwriter, but he does in fact write many of his own speeches.  He wrote his most recent speech about the Reverend Wright, for instance.

As far as I know, he doesn't have a preference for canned speeches, nor does he have any problem whatsoever debating. Do you have a source for that?

Sorry, the debate thing came from Hillary camp propaganda.  Guess I've kinda internalized it.

Great article about Favreau here.


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/20/fashion/20speechwriter.html  

[we vs us]

Sorry, I wasn't trying to bulldog you.  I just try to correct things I hear before they become conventional wisdom.  

We vs us, meme-fighter!

[Gaspar]

quote:Originally posted by we vs us

Sorry, I wasn't trying to bulldog you.  I just try to correct things I hear before they become conventional wisdom.  

We vs us, meme-fighter!

That's ok.  I don't have a dog in this hunt!

[FOTD]

quote:Originally posted by we vs us

Despite all the recent uproar, Democrats are more united now than they've been in a long time.  There's lots of agreement on the problems that need solving, and many similarities between Obama and Clinton on how to solve them.  I'm not worried too much about specifics, since I'm relatively confident that I'll be satisfied with the solutions that fall within the Obama-to-Clinton range, and any specific prescriptions will change with both the times and the makeup of Congress.  

There is one issue, though, that I think Obama is answering far better than Clinton is, and that's how a new Democratic administration will change Washington.  Behind all the feel-good-speechifying, he's done some exceptional work structuring and fine-tuning his organization, and he's embraced some revolutionary organizational tactics to get there. If you have ten minutes, this Fast Company article does an excellent job laying out some of the important intentions behind his candidacy, and the mechanisms (web-based social networks, "open" branding, etc) that have let him accomplish what he's accomplished.

It also pointedly mentions the "youth vote," but weighs it in an entirely different way than many do on this board.  Rather than seeing the Xers and the Millenials as fickle and/or spoiled -- and worse, worthless as a voting demographic -- Obama's been engaging them very specifically and as core members of his constituency, and I think that's laudable for a number of different reasons.  One, it's good for the Democrats (he's building a generational consensus, and the one taking the most advantage of the collapse of the Republican party), and it's good for the nation, because it moves our political discourse past the same old Boomer archetypes.

A Clinton/McCain general election would be the same old stuff.  It would perpetuate the same crap that we've been arguing about since Reagan.  The arguments would still be, at core, about the Vietnam War, about Civil Rights, about Hippies vs. the Country Club, etc etc etc.  Me personally, I'm sick of Boomer politics.  It's the same old thing, circling and recircling the same old issues, and nothing gets resolved.  Even though Obama is officially a late Boomer, he's done the most to try to toss off those old stereotypes and that's laudable.  

More than anything, he makes it seem as if there is a different way to go about things in this country, and in my estimation, we're at a time when we need nothing less.  He has the best chance of achieving something approaching a transformational presidency, and I'd like to give him that chance.

YES!

Seems to me the democrats need to settle the Presedential campaign to move on to congressional races in order to take back the government and allow the Whitee House to lead with an effective Congress. This happened under Reagan and Bush II enabling them to power politics.