We’ve been neglecting our little blog for a few months now and this is a honest to goodness attempt to write consistently. At least for myself anyways. Somehow i think that will be a bit harder for the Uncommon Male because his posts have not always been as popular. *wink*
I’ve been turned on to politics since the beginning of the year. I watched the coverage of the Iowa caucus which is just fascinating without being trite. You see everything at work in human interaction from how people organize themselves, peer pressure and persuasion and for better or worse, decisions are made about who gets a headstart into the primaries. It was victory for Obama and an indictment for Clinton who was supposed to be leading.
I watched the New Hampshire debate as well and found it amusing the Obama-Edwards attack on Clinton who gets cornered into the argument that she should be president because she’s got a lot of experience. During this time, I was reading Obama’s book, Dreams from My Father. It is an excellent read that I would recommend to all, regardless of what you think of Obama. He provides insights into racial friction and what a history of slavery means today as well as feelings of displacement that I think most immigrants are familiar with (being one myself). One thing that I still don’t understand is the anger that Obama describes. I mean Asian Americans have suffered and right now, it’s Hispanic Americans whose communities are attacked because of the perception that illegal immigrants are robbing Americans of jobs. Yet, I don’t think there is the same anger.
Having followed Obama and seeing my friends on Facebook support him, I’m still not clear on what he stands for, aside from change. What are the changes? From reading the book, I can see Obama being able to bring people together and accomplishes things with this cooperation. However, I don’t see what the changes will be. I mean are we that down on the state of this country that we can just accept change without asking the what the why and the how?
I heard a commercial that features Caroline Kennedy endorsing Obama and again, the main message was just inspiration and change…that Obama is inspirational and can bring about change.
Working in a start-up, I understand more and more that even if you have a plan and the right strategy, what make or break you is the ability to execute. I just don’t know how Obama will do in execution.
I am still undecided on whether or not to support Obama and I still have issues with Clinton as well. All I know is I’m definitely not voting for the Republicans who seems so out of touch.
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6 February, 2008 at 1:12 pm
Nash
The change that he speaks of and that supporters of his latch onto is much more intangible than just whether he is anti-abortion, pro-immigration, or anti-Iraq war. He and Hillary have essentially the same platform where the only difference is in their approach to universal healthcare. The fact of the matter is that Obama is a change, quite literally, since that he is not part of the Bush/Clinton legacies that have run our country for the last 27 years. The “experience” of the old school politicians simply leads to being “in bed” and intertwined with the corporations, pac’s, etc.. The palm pressing and winking that goes on with these politicians is precisely because of that “experience” and Obama doesn’t have those same ties. Now, I’m not being naive. I understand that all politicians have pieces of themselves sold to somebody or something, but if we want to extricate ourselves from the duldrums of sameness, then Obama is who you should vote for. It will be like opening a window on a cold day when the room is filled with smoke, humidity and bad body odor.