If we want America to be great again, to be one step closer to the ideals as detailed in the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, we must elect Barack Obama as our 44th president.
Leadership
The most important reason to elect Obama is the gaping void of leadership in our country. We need a steady had to right our ship of state, but we also need someone with knowledge. Anti-intellecutalism has run rampant in the Bush years and it has been a disaster from coast to coast. And without Sen. Obama, it would get worse. When he ran for the presidency the first time, at least George W. Bush had the decency to divide the country after he was sworn in. At the same time when Sen. Obama has been discussing the vital need for our nation to bridge the divide between left and right, the McCain/Palin ticket has run one of the most divisive campaigns in U.S. history. Not satisfied with slicing and dicing the country based on ideology, their campaign has chosen to ride a wave of racial hatred. Each of their rallies since the convention having far more in common with Klan or Nuremberg rallies than a traditional American campaign stop. Palin wasn’t kidding when she said she believed in a “real” America. For her, real America is white, Christian, and rural. For McCain/Palin, their America simply doesn’t include a black man on the east coast like myself. That is a fundamentally anti-American position to hold and it must be defeated.
Economics
Trickle down has failed. Deregulation has failed. America faces a recession caused in part by conservative ideology run wild. Any shopkeeper can tell you somebody must mind the store, or else it will be looted. Wall Street looted America and now is being rewarded. Even worse, McCain wants to cut their taxes – again – and the end result will be what it always is: The market conspires to screw the consumers, and often their own employees. Conservative economics is FAIL. Barack Obama believes that the party is over for big business, while at the same time giving a tax break to the vast majority of Americans. Even Democratic politicians have not been doing that often enough for the last 15 years or so.
Foreign Policy
“Bomb, bomb Iran” isn’t a joke. It’s a promise from John McCain. More Americans have been killed by international terrorism under this Republican president. Americans have died in a war for no cause under this Republican president. And based on his own simple misunderstanding of the world and the bloodthirsty people he surrounds himself with as “advisers”, John McCain would make Bush seem almost as sane as his father was. Barack Obama had the good sense to be against the war when even way too many Democrats didn’t. His foreign policy returns to the tradition of common sense and realism. We will fight the enemies who need fighting and not engage in dumb wars.
Social Issues
The Supreme Court is already conservative enough. Chief Justice Roberts is very young. We can’t allow the court to become even more of a playground for the b.s. conservative legal theories espoused by Dick Cheney & Co. A woman’s right to choose, discrimination laws, property rights, gun rights, labor rights, etc. all stand in the balance. We need Barack Obama making those choices, not people who have been dipped in the waters of conservatism like John McCain and Sarah Palin.
Science
Remember when the president of the United States believed that 1+1=2? Barack Obama does. John McCain is so indebted to the loony right of his party, who knows what sort of crackpots he would infest our government with? The Bush administration saw our national parks and saw oil wells. And McCain would be worse. It isn’t a coincidence that 76 Nobel Prize winners in Science support Obama.
In the past, America has been blessed with making the right presidential choices at the right time. Washington at the founding. Lincoln for the Civil War. FDR for the Depression and WWII. And even Ike for the Cold War. America is on the verge again. This country deserves greatness, and nothing less.
Please elect Barack Obama as our next president.
RELATED: Fear Ends. Hope Begins. Barack Obama For President.
Eye of the tiger, bitches!
Sorry Oliver, I was going to vote for Obama, but then I heard he might be the bastard son of Malcom X.
Great post Oliver. I hope and pray every minute of every day that this wonderful, inspiring, brilliant man is elected our next President. I can’t imagine what the country will be like in two years if it doesn’t happen. I literally shudder at the thought.
My friends and I are all voting for Obama. But we won’t be convinced this dream can come true until all the votes are counted. Go, Obama!!!
Amen brother.
Vote for Obama and make Greta Van Susteren’s plastic surgery melt from the tears of seeing her secessionist friend Sarah fade into obscurity
Well done, OW. I agree that he’s the right man for his times. Imperfect, sure. He’ll grow in office. He’s already demonstrated an ability to grow over the course of a campaign.
seeing her secessionist friend Sarah fade into obscurity
I don’t think we’ve seen the last of her, JR.
Vote for Obama and make Greta Van Susteren’s plastic surgery melt from the tears of seeing her secessionist friend Sarah fade into obscurity
Yes, ‘Plugs’ Biden’s botoxed eyes and forehead are so much more becoming.
Beneath the plugs lies a brain, which is more than I can say for Caribou Barbie.
I’m looking forward to the rest of the world admiring America again. I eagerly await the day when the world looks to America for leadership again. I hope that, for the first time in my adult life, my country will make me feel proud again.
She has a brain, Oliver. Whether you agree or not, look what she’s been able to do with what intellect she does have. Compare and contrast your superior intellect with what you’ve been able to do and accomplish to what she’s been able to do and accomplish with less.
You once called Joe Biden an idiot and a racist. Why the change of heart? Did he change suddenly to your liking? Or is he now a genius simply because he’s been chosen by Obama?
Whether you agree or not, look what she’s been able to do with what intellect she does have.
Yes, she’s been able to take John McCain from a credible presidential candidate to a laughingstock. Seriously, Sarah Palin is one of the biggest idiots we’ve had in national politics. Sen. Biden says stupid things sometime, but he doesn’t have the mountains of stupidity Palin does.
The woman can’t even speak in a coherent sentence.
Amen! I voted early…I wish I could vote often!
And again, Oliver, you called Joe Biden an idiot and a racist. If that is the case, why is that not an equal disqualifier for him and as poor a reflection of Barack Obama’s judgment as McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin?
I hate racism and I know you do too. Why do you feel it’s okay to have a racist as our Vice President, presumably one heartbeat away from the Presidency?
I’d think you’d be mortified at the prospect. I’d think that would bother you more than a woman who doesn’t speak in complete sentences.
I wish I could vote.
I won’t answer for Oliver, but I’ll say I prefer a racist to an idiot because you can reform somebody with subtle racist leanings (as opposed to the Stormfronters of the world) much more easily than you can educate an idiot who already believes she knows it all.
Yesterday she spoke in front of a solar power factory and tried to get the crowd riled up to “drill, baby, drill.”
The fact that anybody takes this woman seriously confounds me.
Fine, SpiderJ, thanks. I could name a few equivalencies about Joe Biden as well, but he was called both an idiot AND a racist.
And are you seriously saying Joe Biden can or will be reformed?
Dennis, Biden is neither an idiot or a racist. He blurted out an idiotic remark about Obama being “clean and articulate” that sounded vaguely racist, in the way that 65-year old white guys often do. Oliver (in my opinion) over-reacted the next day.
Let it go, dude.
I’d like to have an archive of all the idiotic, over-the-top, or just plain stupid stuff YOU’Ve said on Oliver’s blog. You and your soulmates, William, Jay Tea, jmccann, etc.
This is sort of like when Sen. Kerry tried to change his mind here and there and the ankle-biter troglodytes shrilly screeched ‘FLIP-FLOPPAH!!!!11!!!1!’
Dennis: There is a clear difference between making a stupid and vaguely racist comment, and being stupid and racist.
This is sort of like when Sen. Kerry tried to change his mind here and there and the ankle-biter troglodytes shrilly screeched ‘FLIP-FLOPPAH!!!!11!!!1!’
Well, of course! Everyone knows you should never learn new facts and then modify your view. Why, that would require learning and judgment, and those things are dangerous and un-American.
The woman can’t even speak in a coherent sentence.
Neither can George Bush, Jr. Palin just wasn’t born into royalty.
Dennis: There is a clear difference between making a stupid and vaguely racist comment, and being stupid and racist.
Except that’s not what he said, Sean. And Joe Biden has made more than that one racist comment, and far more than one or two stupid ones, to be sure. As to the stupid ones, I guess the number is not so important to overall stupidity as long as he speaks in complete sentences.
This is sort of like when Sen. Kerry tried to change his mind here and there and the ankle-biter troglodytes shrilly screeched ‘FLIP-FLOPPAH!!!!11!!!1!’
Parthy, you’re an honest broker, but you don’t give the same consideration to things Glenn Reynolds says. Not here, and not at Instaputz.
Love this –
“More of the slash and burn, say-anything, do-anything politics that’s calculated to divide and distract; to tear us apart instead of bringing us together,” Obama told 25,000 in Des Moines.
The Illinois senator said he admired a presidential candidate who said in 2000, “I will not take the low road to the highest office in this land.”
“Those words were spoken eight years ago by my opponent, John McCain,” Obama said. “But the high road didn’t lead him to the White House then, so this time, he decided to take a different route.”
Please list a few of Biden’s other racist comments.
And, besides “FDR went on TV,” some of the stupid ones.
I don’t remember any other racist or Palin-level stupid comments made by Joe Biden.
Look up the 7-11 comment, Bruce. You’ll feel better if you do it on your own.
This is sort of like when Sen. Kerry tried to change his mind here and there and the ankle-biter troglodytes shrilly screeched ‘FLIP-FLOPPAH!!!!11!!!1!’
But when Angry Johnny does it, it’s Mavericky!
Give it a rest, Dennis. Biden says dumb stuff sometimes. The difference he knows it.
Dennis: Look up the 7-11 comment, Bruce. You’ll feel better if you do it on your own.
Translated Dennis: I’m too lazy to attempt to provide support for anything I say.
Sent in my absentee ballot a few days ago. It won’t get counted in the initial tally, but will come in about a week later as an “overseas” voter.
I love America, and I despise those who questioned my patriotism over the past eight years for wanting some simple questions answered. I’ll be back in America in a few years, and if Obama is elected I know it can be a beacon for decency again. I love my country, and I’m so proud of the fact that people are leaning towards a change in Washington.
If you aren’t already working for the GOTV effort, please call or e-mail a few friends about what a great opportunity we have as Americans to elect Barack Obama to the presidency. Remind them that McCain is a close friend of Bush, and he offers no change. He is angry, and he is erratic. He has selected a VP nominee who is in no way shape or form qualified to take over if disaster strikes.
Let’s take our country back on November 4th! Let’s make it great again!
Translated Dennis: I’m too lazy to attempt to provide support for anything I say.
Weak, Duros. Not at all. Takes two seconds to google Biden and racism and then copy and paste it here. I figure Bruce can do the same thing, then he can choose which of the hundreds of sources he’d rather read. If I choose one for him, then of course the ad hominems come back as a response.
Dennis: Weak, Duros. Not at all. Takes two seconds
That would be “Duros”. Spelled S-E-A-N.
And you’re the one who made the statement. You’re the one who has to provide support. It isn’t up to anyone else to find sufficient support to convince themselves you have a point. Nice try.
Here, Sean. Take your pick of the 4,400 hits for just the Biden and the 7-11/Dunkin Donuts Indian comment.
Another one, racist or just plain dumb, or both, you decide. Another one from googling Biden Delaware slave state so you can choose on your own.
I’m honestly surprised you and Bruce needed examples of this guy’s other racist remarks. I just assume you’re well-informed about the guys you are voting for. It concerns me almost as the video of the girl today who thinks Obama will pay for her gas and mortgage bills, or the Obama supporters who when asked if they were ok with Obama’s choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate, they said, ‘Yes’.
Scary stuff, S-e-a-n. But hey, it’s really the hip thing to vote for this guy.
With regard to the 7/11 comment, I am Indian-American (uh oh, HYPHENATED IDENTITY!) and I thought it was a stupid thing to say, but not a racist one. As with the “clean and articulate” thing, it was a stumbling attempt to give a compliment.
With “clean and articulate,” the most negative reading is that Biden was pointing out that Obama is a new phenomenon in national Democratic politics as a black candidate (which he is; before this, African American grads of Harvard were represented in presidential politics by… Alan Keyes). However, Obama is typical of a new generation of politicians who have been afforded access to elite institutions as their predecessors had not, and who have built their bases on a broader coalition than their predecessors could.
With the 7/11 comment, Biden was pointing out how phenomenally successful Indians from Gujarat and Punjab have been as entrepreneurs in the U.S. even when they don’t start with much money or education, to the point that they seem to dominate whole service sectors (I read several years ago that 1/3 of all hotels and motels in the U.S. are owned by people with the last name Patel). It’s stereotyping along the same lines as the person who knows my family is from Andhra and assumes I am great at math and science and will become a doctor or engineer. (Which like many stereotypes has a little basis in truth: my dad, uncle-in-law, little sister, second cousin, second-cousin-in-law are all doctors; my older sister, uncle and multiple cousins by blood and marriage trained in computer science.) It is very different from stereotyping Indians as stingy, dishonest, unpatriotic or “unAmerican.” It is very different from the George Allan move of assuming that a guy with brown skin — who actually was born, raised and going to school in VA — needs to be “welcomed to America.”
So is Biden bad at giving compliments to people of color? Sure. Does he go around describing them as unAmerican? No. I think in the matchup against much of the GOP these days, that’s a win for Biden.
Why is it racist to point out that Delaware was a slave state and therefore is culturally dissimilar from places like NY or Mass? I pointed out recently, to counter the argument that segregation was a small, localized problem, that Delaware was one of the defendant states in Brown v. Board of Education. Does that make me racist?
PG-
I didn’t call Joe Biden a racist. Maybe you should ask the person who did.
Good luck getting an answer.
I don’t know if it’s hip to vote for Obama. But it is the only sane choice to anyone informed about either man’s background or history. What people mistook for being a “maverick” was an uncanny ability for decades to tell people whatever he thought they wanted to hear at any given time. The resulting flip-flopping is simply a man who has talked to lots of people losing track of all of his lies (and forgetting the power of Youtube to let us remember). McCain stands for nothing except himself. The really sad part is the idea that he is some sort of foreign policy genius. Maybe an idiot savante, since he repeatedly revealed that he didn’t know the difference between Sunnis and Shia, and which group the major players in an important region belonged to — a man who thinks Iraq and Afghanistan share a border — not to mention his running mate who thinks that it would be a good idea to start a war with Russia over Georgia. This is not Obama spin, the things I am recounting come from the mouths of McCain and Palin.
McCain knows that the religious fanatics in the right wing of the GOP are whackjobs. But he picked one to be his running mate because he cares for nobody but himself. In his judgment, he thought it would help his chances. That judgment as usual was deeply flawed, but his motivation was even more damning.
Dennis,
If you’re saying that OW overreacted to Biden’s saying stupid things, I agree. Do you have any point here beyond that? Because other commenters already have said that, and OW has said, Sen. Biden says stupid things sometime, but he doesn’t have the mountains of stupidity Palin does.
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