Barack Obama makes history…
I’ll be the first to admit, when Barack first made his annoucement to run for President of the United States… we didn’t think his odds were too good. But then again going into this campaign, this was a win/win situation for Barack Obama. I’m sure he went into this nomination with the worst case scenario being VP and the best case being the first African American nominee in US history. It was a good political move to toss his hat into the race, and now that he’s crossed the finish line and has won the democratic nomination… it looks like an even better move than before.
A lot of people first thought Barack would wait and give Hillary her shot first and wait until 2012 or 2016 before making a run for the Whitehouse. It would have been a wise move, but some will also say it was good to strike while the iron was hot, and right now Barack’s popularity has never been hotter. He’s riding a wave that has never been seen since the day John F. Kennedy ran for office… and we haven’t seen speeches that elegant since that era either.
Speaking of speeches, after eight years of listening to King George’s bushisms… didn’t Barack’s speech last just move you and remind you of years past when we had Presidents who not only read books, but wrote them too? After listening to all three speeches last night, (McCain, Hillary and Obama) it’s crystal clear who the real front runner is in this race for the oval office… and we might be witness to even more history when November rolls around. Did you see the crowd that was at Obama’s event, which was held at the same arena where the GOP will be holding their convention? There was over 18,000 people inside the building and according to the fire marshall, there was an additional 15,000 people outside the building to listen to the speech. So close to 40,000 people showed up at the site of the GOP convention just to listen to Barack Obama speak on the night of the final Democractic nomination. McCain could barely scrape up over a hundred people to listen to what he had to say, and his crowd looked almost as old as he did. The difference between the two settings was obvious and I’m sure it sent a chill down the spine (what little it has) of the GOP…
The speech Obama made was historic, and magnificent… and thanks to the power of You Tube, check it out for yourself!
(Barack Obama – St. Paul Speech – June 3rd 2008: Part 1)
(Barack Obama – St. Paul Speech – June 3rd 2008: Part 2)
(Barack Obama – St. Paul Speech – June 3rd 2008: Part 3)
How can you listen to this speech and not feel inspired and more hopeful for the future? McCain and Hillary didn’t stand a chance against a speech like that. They were outclassed and out gunned by this speech, and to eveh try to steal his thunder on this historic night was a big boo-boo on both their parts. Hillary’s ‘lack of consession’ speech was horrid, especially given the fact that she lost. From what I gather from her speech, she plans to keep fighting all the way to Denver with her delegates. Not exactly going out gracefully, not going out at all. Is she still waiting for someone to take a shot at him and give her the Robert Kennedy solution she hinted to a few weeks ago?
What I liked about Barack’s speech is the fact that he was all about hope, compassion and uniting the people rather than splitting them. Hillary’s speech was about fighting and that will split the party, and McCain’s speech was about fear and that will split the people. Obama’s speech was about moving forward together, about how people were Americans first above all else… and there’s no doubt who looked more Presidental. Right now the momentum is all Obama, and the conventions are going to be complete opposites. The GOP convention is going to be a complete snooze fest, and of course King George as outgoing Commander will want a moment to speak, even though McCain is going to spend all summer and fall distancing himself from Bush. That convention will be a nightmare to schedule and run, with ego and legacies all clashing with people who are trying to run a campaign. It will be a mess…
The DMC Convention is going to be the other end of the spectrum, as Obama makes history, and the people will go beserk and you’ll have to scrap the people off the top of teh Pepsi center with a spatula when it’s all said and done. It will be a historic event, and we’ll have another stunning speech like the one above to look forward to when Obama formally accepts the nomination. The DMC has the potential to be a disaster as well, depending on what kind of shitstorm Hillary tries to make of it, but I doubt the party are going to let her rain on the parade, especially when they have a chance to run a much, much better and more exciting convention than their rivals. They are not going to let her ruin a chance to get a better bump in the ratings… or ruin their chances to take back the Whitehouse. I’ll be very surprised if we don’t see the party step up and make her take her bow out within th next week or two and finally put her campaign to rest.
Overall, it was a very historic night, and one worth staying up to witness… and I found watching a lot of the political commentary interesting. I found the negative response to Hillary’s speech shocking, not because I disagreed, but that they were so public with it. That night the media didn’t hold back, and that was nice to see for a change. Speaking of not holding back, it will be amusing to see what Jon Stewart does with all that on today’s Daily Show. Something well worth setting up the TIVO for, don’t ya think?
Peter
Totally agree with your comments. Obama’s speech last night was inspiring and all about “we”. Hilary’s speech was narcissistic and all about “I”. Someone should take the text of the speeches and note how many times she referred to herself. Anyway, I saw you on the front page and wanted you to know I enjoyed your thoughts.
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LOL. Memories…. you will always have memories when Barry is a distant past like alGore, Kerry, Dukakis, McGovern et al. McCain is boring as hell but he is the moderate candidate not the obamessiah. Barry is an extreme liberal and what is sad is that Hillary probably would have won the General.
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SK: Do you really think McCain is the best the GOP can come up with? He’s the sacrifical lamb. He’s going to take the fall for George W. and they’re saving their best stuff for 2012. Up here in Canada, we’re calling it the Jean Charet tactic which worked for the PC’s. They let the ailing 72 year old man take the dive for the party, and then four years later after George W. is a distant memory and no longer an anchor, they take a fresh stab with their real golden boy… and make a real run with no labels or anchors attached. Right now based on the data we’re looking at, McCain and the GOP are going to get flattened again like the did in 2006; it’s going to be another sweep. People want out of Iraq and want the GOP out of the Whitehouse… and Hillary’s people want Barack in rather than one of Bush’s people back in. So ‘Barry’s’ chances are smige better than you think…
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I’m at work so will have to watch the videos later but so many things impress me about Obama and I’m reasonably confident of his victory this fall. Indeed I shall be arriving in the States on election day and if McCain wins I might just have to turn back round and leave! Have you read his book? Ultimately the main criterion as a non US citizen I have to judge him is foreign policy and I’m abit concerned about some things, particularly the violation of other countries soverignty to protect US interests which is not that much different from Bush saying he’d be prepared to violate Pakistan to get Al’Queda, and he seems not to have a clear grasp of the various factions in the Colombian civil war and the interrelated politics of the Bolivarian countries but fair enough it’s complicated enough even for us natives!
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Peter: Bear in mind that SK (along perhaps with free-man minus the unintentional satire) is the most extreme right-winger and person most in need of rabies shots on OD. He makes Notliberal look like a cross between Jimmy Carter and Gandhi. Taking him seriously is a waste of time for anyone with multiple brain cells.
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But the Charest tactic?! His leadership of the federal Tories coincided with the beginning a 13 year Liberal reign.
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The problem I have with Obama is that he keeps calling for change, but never actually says what change he’s calling for. RYN: Don’t I know it. When I showed that article to Duckie, he went on a rant about how Gretzky is the nicest person in the entire world and proceeded to tell me stories detailing his kindness. It’s nice that SOME athletes still care about fans and can keep their ego in check.
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SK’s a total idiot. Obama is exhilarating. It will be a long, hard job for him, however, to clean up the War Crimes’ regime’s mess.
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That McCain is considered ‘moderate’ by someone like SK should give you an idea of how much of a warmonger the AZ senator really is.
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Popeye: Jean Charest was supposed to take over after Brian Mulroney, but they didn’t want him to take the fall for his Reign, which was going to take a massive fall… just like the GOP will take in the fall cause of Bush. Rather that let him take the fall, it was said Charest stepped aside and let the party pick someone else to take the hit. In came Kim Campbell, who made a good fight of it… but as expected the party took a huge hit, going from a majority government to TWO SEATS in parliment. One of those two seats remaining, was Jean Charest… who took over a descimated party and restored them. When he left the PC, they were back to 25 seats and offical party status, and today they are now the Minority Government. So yes, the ‘Charest tactic’ did work. They got someone else to take the hit, and they let their guy repair the damage afterwards. Many of us see McCain being the ‘GOP Kim Campbell’ and that we’ll see their real Jean Charest in 2012. Does that seem so far fetched??
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RYN: It sounds ggod but 2 with no experience is kind of weak.
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I remember following that leadership campaign (it was right around the time I started following Canadian politics), especially being bombarded with pink at the PC convention. But I wasn’t aware that Charest had stepped aside. Did he officially step aside or just campaign half-heartedly enough to get his name out there without derailing the scapegoat’s chances of winning.
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In any case, your explanation makes sense. The unfortunate part is that McCain has a real chance of winning, thanks to just enough racism to potentially make a difference and a large dose of American anti-intellectualism. Americans are inherently suspicious of anyone smart who doesn’t dumb himself down. How do you explain Walker Bush beating Kerry and nearly beating Gore? McCain isn’t Bush but
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he appeals to the same anti-intellectual strain. God forbid the most powerful nation on earth have a president who’s actually smart and talented.
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He’s good at bringing people together and giving them hope and I guess that’s what our country needs. I really wanted Hillary though. She would have done a better job. Being a president is about more than good speeches.
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you act like he won by sooooo much but the reality is, hillary won more of the popular vote. by a very small margin, but if we were to get rid of our archaic voting system and literally go by the will of the people, hillary would be the nominee now (and gore would have been our president instead of bush). obama won the same way bush did. wooo.
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Lizzy: The shock isn’t because he won by so much (cause like you said he didn’t) but because he pulled off the big upset. He was the underdog and he pulled it off… The ‘archaic voting system’ as you put it is so that every state has a fair say so that politicians pay attention to Iowa and New Hampshire as much as they do in California. It provides equality to all states… and ishow the system works. She knew that going in and wouldn’t complain if she was the winner. Comparing to Florida in 2000 is low because Obama didn’t cheat or have a brother fixing the numbers in one of the states. Technically if you include the ‘undecided’ numbers from Michigan, she didn’t win the popular vote… so she’s manipulating the numbers just to toot her own horn. Fact is she lost, and it happens. McCain lost a bitter one in 2000, you didn’t see him cry in his beer. He got over it and tried again. Hillary will have to do the same…
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I must have hit a home run with all of the insults from the peanut gallery. *bows*
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I happen to think the system should force candidates to pay attention not to all states but to all Americans. And to talk about a voting system is really wrong. We have 50 voting systems here, more if you count the non-states. In some states, the party primary voters are restricted to members of that party. In other states, independents can vote in either primary. In others, people can vote in
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another partyÂ’s primary so long as they donÂ’t vote in their own. Is it right to have Republicans having a huge influence in picking the Dem nominee or vice versa? And this doesnÂ’t even get to the way many states rig their electoral law to make it almost impossible for smaller parties to function. And this just addresses the primaries, not the general election. Our voting systemS ARE archaic.
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But unlike these bitter Hillaryites, I and other progressives have been saying this for years (two decades in my case), not weeks.
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Popeye: You’re whining to the guy whose country only uses paper ballots and has five official parties. Don’t come to me about how broken your system is. I think you guys should go back to paper and pencils, and just hold one vote just for the election and forget the referendums/by elections and all that other crap. It’s all that by-law stuff that makes everything so difficult in the first place and makes that ballot so massive in the first place. When I voted in the last federal election, I got one piece of paper, with five options and a pencil. That’s it. If your system were that simple… counting votes wouldn’t be that difficult.
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The reason I was “whining” is because you talked about it. The biggest difference is that we have basically one single national election day. Though some sporadic local elections happen in the spring and primaries are their own thing, nearly every final vote is held on one day. This November, I will vote for president/VP, US senator, US rep, two state legislators, a local library budget
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, library trustees plus probably one or more state constitutional amendments. Other places (not NYS) will also be voting for governor/lt. governor and other statewide offices like attorney general and comptroller. And I’m sure other places will also have municipal and county races to vote on too.
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In Canada, by contrast, federal and provincial elections are not held simultaneously and in both cases, you’re voting for a single office. Until we scrap the executive system for a parliamentary one, we can’t do what you suggest… without having election days every month. And I’m well aware that Canadian electoral law is less rigged against smaller parties. In fact, it was when I started
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Canadian and Western European politics that I realized how much more democratic it was to have multiple parties in the debate… which eventually inspired me to join the Green Party and agitate for electoral reform. The actual counting of the vote is far less problematic for the most part than the structure of the system.
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