I hinted at this. And here it is.
I hinted at this in a comment on the comment in a friend's post, and I figured I'd post it here.
So, I've avoided posted political pieces in the past... almost two years. It was a resolution of mine for 2006, but I failed that one promptly, what with the Danish cartoon issue and all. Then I stuck to it in 2007, I believe. Am I posting this for shock value? Maybe partially, but what I'm writing here is what I'm thinking at the moment. And I'm still going to refrain from following politics for the most part, but like most of the uneducated fraction of this country, I might just find something I like and run with it.
It looks like John McCain is getting the Republican nomination. God help us all. And speaking of things we need God's protection from, Huckabee might be second place. Yeah, I liked the movie too, but he had nothing to do with that. But I'm glad I didn't get a shirt for the movie. In fifty years, the Republicans went from Dwight Eisenhower[1] to this.
Meanwhile, who have the Democrats offered lately? Al Gore in 2000. I was fairly liberal in 2000 and couldn't get excited in the least about Al Gore for leader of anything except the Vice Presidential Action Rangers. Who lost in 2004? Exactly.
OK, for those of you who didn't like what I had to say about politics in the past, thank you for sticking with me so far. You'll like where this is headed.
Several times over the past few months, I've seen campaign T-shirts for various candidates. My favorite still is "half honky, all donkey," advertising Obama. So I looked into him, enough to see what he says he's about and what he's shown he's about, and I like a great deal of what I see.
By the way, I haven't read or actively followed politics, other than seeing headlines on Digg while looking for funny pictures, in well over a year. So if others have harped on this repeatedly, I apologize. To show how out of it I was, when I started seeing signs for the primary candidates, I thought that Ru Paul was running.
What I like of what I see in Barack Obama:
Could I find things I don't like? Could I write a long post about why I don't like the other front runners in both parties? Could I start all sorts of arguments? Sure. Will I? Probably not. Following politics actively is a past segment of my life. I'm done with that until at least such time that a Cablinasian candidate emerges. But he won't be eligible until the 2012 election. This post is just me briefly coming out of absence to surprise.
[1] A funny side note about Dwight Eisenhower: his campaign slogan was "I like Ike." This was a great campaign slogan: it was short, simple, rhymed, and used the president's nickname on a casual basis to make him seem like a close friend to voters. The problem, of course, was when his running mate used a similar slogan.
So, I've avoided posted political pieces in the past... almost two years. It was a resolution of mine for 2006, but I failed that one promptly, what with the Danish cartoon issue and all. Then I stuck to it in 2007, I believe. Am I posting this for shock value? Maybe partially, but what I'm writing here is what I'm thinking at the moment. And I'm still going to refrain from following politics for the most part, but like most of the uneducated fraction of this country, I might just find something I like and run with it.
It looks like John McCain is getting the Republican nomination. God help us all. And speaking of things we need God's protection from, Huckabee might be second place. Yeah, I liked the movie too, but he had nothing to do with that. But I'm glad I didn't get a shirt for the movie. In fifty years, the Republicans went from Dwight Eisenhower[1] to this.
Meanwhile, who have the Democrats offered lately? Al Gore in 2000. I was fairly liberal in 2000 and couldn't get excited in the least about Al Gore for leader of anything except the Vice Presidential Action Rangers. Who lost in 2004? Exactly.
OK, for those of you who didn't like what I had to say about politics in the past, thank you for sticking with me so far. You'll like where this is headed.
Several times over the past few months, I've seen campaign T-shirts for various candidates. My favorite still is "half honky, all donkey," advertising Obama. So I looked into him, enough to see what he says he's about and what he's shown he's about, and I like a great deal of what I see.
By the way, I haven't read or actively followed politics, other than seeing headlines on Digg while looking for funny pictures, in well over a year. So if others have harped on this repeatedly, I apologize. To show how out of it I was, when I started seeing signs for the primary candidates, I thought that Ru Paul was running.
What I like of what I see in Barack Obama:
- "I believe that America's free market has been the engine of America's great progress. It's created a prosperity that is the envy of the world. It's led to a standard of living unmatched in history. And it has provided great rewards to the innovators and risk-takers who have made America a beacon for science, and technology, and discovery... We are all in this together. From CEOs to shareholders, from financiers to factory workers, we all have a stake in each other's success because the more Americans prosper, the more America prospers." - from Obama - Issues - Economy
- "Making Work Pay" plans. A recurring theme that I see in Obama's economic plans deals with education and employment at the heart of anti-poverty programs.
- His health plan seems to focus on as much prevention as cure. He doesn't seem to be forcing adults for whom insurance isn't a necessity into spending for it.
- An apparent effort to go five days after the contents of a bill have been made public before signing it, with the obvious exception for emergencies.
- Take a look at his Issues - Faith page. And look at the .pdf and read the last item. For that matter, read the whole thing (it's only two pages).
Could I find things I don't like? Could I write a long post about why I don't like the other front runners in both parties? Could I start all sorts of arguments? Sure. Will I? Probably not. Following politics actively is a past segment of my life. I'm done with that until at least such time that a Cablinasian candidate emerges. But he won't be eligible until the 2012 election. This post is just me briefly coming out of absence to surprise.
[1] A funny side note about Dwight Eisenhower: his campaign slogan was "I like Ike." This was a great campaign slogan: it was short, simple, rhymed, and used the president's nickname on a casual basis to make him seem like a close friend to voters. The problem, of course, was when his running mate used a similar slogan.