Youth Politics

Although I’d love to write this Star Wars style, that’s just too much effort. Let’s get down to what just happened a few minutes ago.

Barack Obama, the next presidential candidate of the Democratic party, has officially accept his nomination and is ready to get down to business. His message is of hope and change, but not empty hope and not empty change. Obama has finally laid out some of his plans to tackle the biggest issues facing America today, including the War in Iraq, the economy, dependence on foreign oil, health care, and equal rights. He has declared his plans when it comes to taxes, and gave us a brief summary on his plan to figure out how to pay for his bold new plans.

The BEST part, I thought, about the speech, was the positive commentary about McCain and the moderate ideals expressed by Obama. Unity is more than just uniting the Democratic party, it’s about uniting America. I’d have to agree with that stance 100 percent. I’ve mentioned so many times on this blog about how Americans all want the same thing, and yet we fight divided and strike with pointless attacks. Yes, Barack Obama did throw some punches at McCain, which is to be expected from a Democrat, but he also mentioned how everyone needs to come together to achieve our goals, and he would be correct.

Obama gave an astounding speech. Whether you believe he will be able to do as he promises as president is obviously up for debate. I expect at LEAST as good a performance by McCain as well as the others at the Republican Convention. Because I’m looking forward to watching it.

Now, I did listen to a little bit of the media commentary afterwards, and I must say, if you truly want to get a good mix of opinions, you have to flip between channels. Period. Fox News talked about how the celebration at the end with all the fireworks can be a double-edged sword, and that critics may respond to that display. Fine. CNN didn’t mention that the fireworks could possibly be shown as celebrity-ish and talked about how he attacked McCain, gave an excellent speech, and actually laid out his plans for America. Again, if you’re not listening to both of these stations at the same time, you’re getting a biased opinion afterwards.

So, to conclude my review of Barack Obama’s speech, here is the Fox News story from their site, and here is CNN’s coverage. I encourage everyone to read BOTH.

Tonight we get to hear about what Barack Obama is truly made of. I know some people are critical of him because he’s been all hope and no plan. Well, now is a fantastic chance for him to get the issues out there, and give us what he thinks is the best approach on tackling these issues. This is a pretty high pressure speech he has to give I think, so we’ll see if he nails it on the head or misses the mark completely.

I know there will be Republicans closely looking at his speech, as they are (and should be) the most critical bunch to see if Obama actually ever gives out his plan for America.

Everyone knows Obama is about hope and change, but how will he change America? Unfortunately you cannot change America through hope alone.

When I look through the net all I see is McSame this, Barack Hussein Obama that, or Obama bin Biden. Or some other name used to describe Barack Obama that I’m not going to look up at this moment, because I don’t care. My point is that using any of these names is stupid.

First of all, McCain is not George W. Bush. He’s not. McCain has always leaned more moderate than a lot of the Republican party. Yea people are going to tell you that he’s voted with Bush 90 percent of the time. But what does that really mean? Someone could have voted against the war in Iraq, tax cuts for corporations, and for the privatization of Social Security and still have voted 90 percent with Bush. Don’t let these percents fool you. It’s about what is agreed upon and disagreed upon that matters, not on how many bills a candidate and the president have agreed upon. However, McCain has fallen victim to the Republican machine, and he’s being transformed and twisted into another Bush. He is not like that; the Republicans made him that way. At best, he is a McSimilar, not a McSame.

What is with the emphasis on Barack’s middle name? Why are we calling him Barack Hussein Obama instead of just Barack Obama? Why aren’t we calling McCain by his full name, John Sidney McCain? Oh, are people trying to emphasize the Hussein part of his name? It’s a name, get over it. I like how people try to hide their racism through these insignificant facts. Even if Barack were a Muslim, which he’s not, what difference would that make? I thought America was about freedom, the ultimate melting pot. I guess to a lot of people Muslims are not to be included in this melting pot. And then they wonder why extremists are against America? If there’s one thing I absolutely cannot stand, it’s bigotry. I’m done with people who still value a lack of melatonin over intelligence, who value ancestry over smarts. I’d appreciate if these people do not vote at all. That may sound harsh, but if you’re not voting with your head, then you’re wasting the country’s time.

Where do all of these attacks get us? Nowhere. I, for one, care solely about the issues and how to combat them. No amount of McSame or Barack Hussein Obama is going to convince me one way or the other. I simply do not care. No one should. How am I to be convinced to vote for Obama if his argument is that McCain is the same thing as Bush!? Let me use a rather extreme example. If Hitler was calling out and saying not to vote for “McSame”, would that convince you to vote for Hitler? I would hope not. And don’t even try to use my example as a way to bash Obama, because neither the Democrats nor the Republicans are sporting a “Hitler” as their candidate.

Where does name calling get us when it comes time to debate? Nowhere. I notice that intelligent debates becomes rants and then purely insults as soon as someone lets a name out of the hat. It’s as if Americans are addicted to political attacks, almost as much as America is addicted to oil. People love conflict and bashing others for their different beliefs. It’s incredible, and it proves nothing. No amount of name calling will get me to believe in the other candidate, because name calling doesn’t provide credentials. It’s nothing but slander. I recall McCain telling everyone that he will not run a negative campaign. What happened McCain? I guess the Republican party changed his mind on that, as well.

Some Democrats are annoyed that Obama is simply not fighting back hard enough. I think Obama should fight back, but I don’t think that fight should be conducted by attacking McCain back. The best way to attack McCain is for Obama to simply state what he believes in, and have the American people hear about what his agenda really is. McCain will have nothing but attacks under his belt while the American people figure out what Obama is all about. Not to mention that Obama can take the high ground when it comes to negative campaigning. To do so otherwise would be stupid; this is a good opportunity for the Democratic party to show America what it’s really about.

I hope that when election day comes, people remember solely the issues. All of the candidates have their own plans for fixing America’s issues. Go for the candidate who you feel has the best plan and stick with that person because you believe in that plan. Remember that you can never convince me to vote for a candidate based on attacks on the other candidate. It’s just not going to happen. I vote with my head, and if you’re not going to tell me what’s so great about your candidate, then why should I vote in that direction?

After watching Hillary Clinton’s speech at the Democratic Convention, I think that one thing has been made perfectly clear: they do not want four more years of the last eight more years.

The entire crowd was roaring as Hillary spoke. She wasn’t even allowed to speak until after a three minute standing ovation! If anyone can fire up the women and her supporters it’s, well, her. The cameras showed Bill Clinton practically tearing up. A lot of the women were tearing up too and I think it goes to show that the Democrats are nowhere near out of contention. Republicans should be worried. Very worried.

Honestly, if you missed Hillary Clinton’s speech, you should watch it. I was going to give Fox News’ report, but they don’t have one. Oh well, here’s MSNBC coverage once again.

After watching Mark Warner’s speech, all I have to say is…. wow.

This guy knows what he’s talking about! He delivered the goods as Virginia’s governor and he’s done so again, today. We must think about the future. We cannot think in D’s or R’s, left or right, liberal or conservative. He says we need to head towards the future, and to let go of the past, and he’s absolutely right. You can read more about his speech .