Friday, December 01, 2006
Obama Barack is making all the right noise
From CNN.com: At the conference today, Obama said he "respectfully but unequivocally" disagreed with those who do not want to include condom use in the fight against AIDS. But he also commented, "Let me say this loud and clear — I don't think that we can deny that there is a moral and spiritual component to prevention — that in too many places all over the world where HIV/AIDS is prevalent — including by the way right here in the United States — the relationship between men and women, between sexuality and spirituality, has broken down, and needs to be repaired."
This guy is playing the middle perfectly and if he can find a way to make his views known to a wider audience, I could see him building the sort of name recognition it takes to make a run at the Oval Office. He is an admittedly flawed, allegedly devout, Christian, who speaks with conviction and appears to be positioning himself as the Dems' man of the future. The one thing he lacks is experience, but then he can play that to his advantage, taking the moralist outsider position. His growing fame raises some interesting questions.
What would happen if Hillary Clinton decided 2008 was her year, as most people believe she will, and she tapped Obama as her running mate? I'm not sure what I would do, if such a circumstance were to arise. My feelings on Hillary Clinton vary between several shades of disgust, but Obama becoming the first, black Vice President to the first female President would make for an interesting story. With the damage George W and the outgoing Congress have done to the Republican cause, it seems like a plausible outcome. Of course, things change quickly in this country, so who knows what scandal the future will bring for any of the players currently being bounced around. While I would prefer to see Obama take a run himself, I'm not sure he will have the experiential credibility to get him over the hump. And I am not sure how well he'll fare against the Repub slander machine. After seeing what Karl Rove was allowed to do to John McCain in 2000, there's no telling how far America's party of the wealthy and the white would be willing to go in their efforts to keep a black man out of the White House.
I would also like to hear more about Obama's ties to corporate sponsorship. How deeply he is in the pockets of corporate America is more important to me than whether or not he believes in the virtues of condom use. If he is gulping up the sort of funds that his peers so ravenously inhale into their election coffers, he's really of no use to anyone with a mind toward change. After hearing him speak and some limited reading on his background, my gut says that he is at least a decent man. Whether or not he is a good one remains to be seen. If the Repubs nominate Guiliani, a man who fucked his mistress in the same bed his wife slept in during his time as mayor of New York, the Dems are more or less guaranteed my vote by default. While I enjoy the irony of Repubs boosting a man who shares the moral sense of Bill Clinton, another politician I detest, I can't vote for such a morally vacuous man in good conscience.
Something tells me 2008 will be a difficult year for many of us, when it comes time to head to the voting booths. The times, they are a-changing...for better or worse, no one knows.
Labels: politics
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Be prepared, it’s a long one…
Before I get off on my rant, let me discuss the topic at hand. While I think Obama has potential, I don't feel we know enough about him at this point. He looks good on the outside, but we haven't had time to see what he really stands for and what he can do. I also don't think he has enough experience to run this Country at this point. However, after a few more years, I would like to see him run.
As far as Hillary is concerned, I hope this country is never ready for her. She is all-wrong on so many levels. I’m also not ready to see ANY woman in that position. To be frank, I don't think a woman would have the "balls" to kill people or send our boys into harms way if need be. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for peace and diplomatic solutions (I certainly don't ever want to see Scott deployed again) but if something were to happen again and America needed to take drastic measures...I don't think a woman has what it takes to be Commander in Chief.
Now for my rant…
While everyone has a right to their own opinion, I can't believe you of all people can constantly be so one track minded and constantly generalize the feelings of an entire party. To say that "America's party of the wealthy and the white would be willing to go in their efforts to keep a black man out of the White House" pretty much disgusts me. You know that your brother and I lean to the right, does this mean you think we are wealthy racist? That couldn't be any further from the truth.
To talk about the "Repub slander machine"...please Erik, you and I both know that both parties are EQUALLY guilty of this. I personally feel there should be a law against slander and the only thing the politicians should be able to talk about in their campaign commercials is what and HOW they are going to do these things they say they can do. If I hear one more politician from either side say they are going to "fix" Iraq without saying how I think I will scream. We can all talk the big talk, but lets actually start telling the American people just how we plan to accomplish these goals.
On to another topic, it's funny how when you do bring up the faults of the democrats, it's still done in a nice skirting over kind of way..."My feelings on Hillary Clinton vary between several shades of disgust", "While I enjoy the irony of Repubs boosting a man who shares the moral sense of Bill Clinton, another politician I detest".
Then when you talk about the Republicans who are guilty of the very same things as the Democrats, you are much more harsh..."If the Repubs nominate Guiliani, a man who fucked his mistress in the same bed his wife slept in during his time as mayor of New York".
It’s your blog and your right to speak however you so choose, but if it were me I would say, "Bill Clinton who "Fucked" his mistress while in the Oval Office instead of doing his job and taking care of our boys in Somalia".
I don't want to see Guiliani run for the very same reasons you mention, however, you can't deny the things he has done has been done by so many men in political office on BOTH sides...left and right. I could name quite a few Democrats off the top of my head who were less than faithful to their wives.
My point to this long, long, long rant is…I think the American people need to stop putting the parties into these old-fashioned stereotypes and start looking at the politicians as one.
Mom-to-be is feeling feisty! :)
Here's the thing, for every bad, there is always a worse. In this case, making the argument that Karl Rove's leadership in the Republican party's campaign stategizing has not been detrimental to this country is just ignoring facts. Rove, a man who never served a day in the military in any capacity, turned John McCain, a war veteran, POW, and decorated soldier, into the father of an illegitimate, Vietnamese child in the run-up to the 2000 election. The problem is, there was no Vietnamese child and McCain fathered no one during his time in Vietnam. He made Max Cleland, a decorated, triple amputee, veteran of the Vietnam war out to be a coward and traitor during the Seantorial campaign for Georgia in 2004, comparing Cleland to Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. The problem is, Max Cleland won the Bronze and Silver Stars during his time in Vietnam. The latter was awarded after he was blown apart trying to save two fellow soldiers from a grenade attack. A real coward and traitor to his country, that Max Cleland. And then there is the John Kerry debacle, but I won't go there, because John Kerry is a shitbrick, and there's really no point in defending him these days.
My point is, the party you are defending is led by people who neither respect, nor like the military. These men have never served, would never serve, and see soldiers as expendable assets. I think it is disgusting, given their lives of comfort and cowardice.
As for Bill and Hill, I'm not sure it gets much worse than "disgust" and "detest", but the two of them are Guiliani's equal on the moral bankruptcy scale. And I would not ever make the argument that what he has done is any worse than what Dems like Kennedy and Clinton did during their time in office, I can't stand any of them and think they were all highly overrated.
As for Obama, if he keeps his nose clean and has a productive couple of years in the Senate, he is going to be a very difficult man to stop in 2008. It is sounding more and more like Hillary Clinton will run, which is a shame, but should she pick Barack as her running mate, and the Repubs pick Giuliani as their "man for the job", it will be very difficult not to vote for Clinton-Obama come election time. There's always a chance Hillary might fall down some stairs or choke on a pretzel...
I guess we will just have to agree to disagree on the topic of which party takes better care of the military. I can vote either way come Election Day, however, 9 times out of 10 I think the military is in better hands with a Republican in office. That doesn't mean I will vote for that person, because they may be all wrong for the job on every other issue. Personally, I think the best candidate for 2008 would be John McCain. As it stands right now, both parties are lacking in their candidates who might be running. Hillary...I don't need to even explain, Guiliani...aside from his affairs, he was just a mayor of a big city, that's not enough to run a country. There has to be more worthy candidates out there.
Oh yes, I'm feisty!!! My ankles are swollen to the size of cantaloupes and my stomach is about to explode. Women who claim that pregnancy is such a beautiful thing are crazy!!! The end result is beautiful but getting there is miserable. It probably doesn't help I'm having two and spent 12 weeks on bed rest...but unless a big mistake happens we will not be having any more children :) :)