Youth Politics

Just to be fair, some of my thoughts are pretty much covered here. You may or may not agree with this, but you’ll have to see for yourself.

I did hear Obama’s rebuttal after the coverage of the forum, and he was allowed, briefly, to defend himself from the lies and attacks directed towards him. He actually got quite impassioned about it. He even called some of the public liars. Well, it’s true. People do lie, well no. People tell half-truths. People who are not in the know only say what they’ve heard, and people who do know only tell you what you want to hear. So everyone must keep these two little facts in mind.

Again, I don’t know. A lot of people say they do not know who Obama is, and this is one of those times to get him out there. It’s almost like advertising. Obama I thought did fairly well and some unsure people might now feel more comfortable with him. Maybe. As for McCain, he’s been in the public spotlight, so this is just another time for him to actually speak about the issues. He had to correct his facts twice up there, so that may be a cause for concern. Other than that, not a big deal.

When are the Green Party and the Libertarian Party going to be invited to a political forum?

A few days ago I overheard someone discussing the elections with another person over the phone. Now, this person was speaking quite loudly, so it’s not as if I was eavesdropping. It provided me with the rare opportunity to figure out what political party this person backs. Now, I’ve heard of people who do not like Obama, either they do not like what he stands for, they don’t think he’s qualified enough, etc. But this person was talking about Obama like he’s going to bring the end of the world. I’d never heard harsher terms directed at him. In the meantime I’m thinking to myself, what is this person talking about? Obama’s just another guy with a fresh perspective, what’s so bad about that?

Republicans in the ideal would prefer less government to more. This person made that perfectly clear: he/she does not want more government in his/her life. I can understand that. However, I think it’s incredibly selfish to say that government should stay out of people’s lives. The government is there to protect us. Without government survival of the fittest would surely kick in and then wouldn’t everyone just have a blast… Anyhow, there are those that need the government’s protection. I mean we’re not paying taxes into the system for nothing, right? Those who haven’t been able to find a job in a while (and yes it can happen, and no those people are not being lazy) need government action to help them. The poor need the government’s assistance to pull them out of the downward spiral they are in. There are always going to be those less fortunate than ourselves, we can either let them drown or help them up. How is helping others the end of the world?

Yes Obama is going to try to change the status quo America has set up for itself. Yes change can be scary, especially to the older folks, but it shouldn’t have to be that way. No one who has run for the office of the presidency in the United States has been evil in my lifetime. Everyone has good intentions, and yet bias gets in the way of people’s thinking, as do emotions. Fear comes from misunderstandings, misconceptions, and from ignorance. To be fearful of Obama is to be misinformed as to who he is. Here is my advice: read up on every candidate running for office. Especially focus on McCain and Obama but it wouldn’t hurt to look up the candidates running on the libertarian ticket or another independent ticket. If anything, it’ll help you to sound a little more intelligent if you ever need to go toe-to-toe with someone in a political debate.

So Barack Obama went to Germany yesterday in an attempt to prove that he will be received well by the international community as well as to show that he has the ability to become a leader with regards to foreign policy. As far as I’m concerned, that’s a good idea on his part. His speech was fairly successful, it drew a large crowd, and a lot of cheering. Of course there are always going to be the commentators on either side of the party lines, giving their opinions and whatnot and putting a twist as to how successful his speech truly was, but for the most part, I think it was a good move on his part and is really no big deal.

Enter McCain.

Now it is not completely his fault; the media seems to put a much greater importance in irrelevant comments than the subject matter at hand. For reference, here’s CNN’s video of the interview with McCain. Most of the interview (that we see, anyway) has absolutely nothing to do with Obama’s visit to Germany, however the article stresses it for at least a couple of paragraphs.

Still, making the argument that he would rather visit Germany as president and not a candidate for president means nothing. To try to attack Obama from this angle is clearly pointless. Just because Obama visits another country for a day or two does not mean he’s not trying to win the hearts of American voters; again, he’s trying to prove to us Americans that he can do the job. I see no problem with that, and I don’t think McCain can really attack him on this angle. McCain has plenty of other angles from which he can prove he’s the better candidate, and I firmly believe there was no reason for him to try and make an argument for himself.

Was McCain being in front of a German restaurant an accident? I want to say no. That’s way too much of a coincidence. He may have, maybe, been trying to make a point, but I think it just flopped and he dropped it. Either that or he changed his mind.