blue and green feathers
okay obama summary as promised... though limited by time constraints...
first of all i would like to brag about how witty i am because i made a joke about how the weather forecasters are obviously republicans when it started to rain on us and everyone around me laughed.
so.
i admit that i haven't seen that many political speeches, so maybe i just have unrealistically high expectations.
my only other experience with a politician was that time that whitney and i got our picture taken with kinky at his midnight rally, and we completely missed everything he said since we were too busy taking pictures of our newly pedicured feet. that and whitney and emily jr (old roomie) were probably picking on me like usual. all i really knew about kinky was that he seemed to be the lesser of many evils and/or useless candidates and he wanted to give teachers a raise.
so obama.
i didnt know anything about him, which is why i went to OBAMARAMA 2007... to educate myself. and also because for some reason he became an overnight phenomenon, worshiped by college students far and wide.
i knew he was a democrat, and black-- though not black enough, apparently, since his blackness comes from africa, and not slavery. that was about it.
i was really struck by how the whole thing seemed to be a rock concert benefitting new orleans rather than a political rally, but i digress.
obama said a lot of stuff. i know he probably felt like he needed to talk for a long time to justify the pains it took to assemble a crowd of 20,000 in his honor. but i think that when you have been standing for four hours in the rain, that short, sweet, and to the point is the way to go.
and in any case i can pretty much summarize everything he said in one sentence:
"we need: national healthcare, better access to college for poor kids, to end the war in iraq, and to rebuild new orleans."
i defy you to find a democrat who doesn't say the exact same thing.
wait. hold up. i bet you could even find a bunch of republicans too.
point being
those are obvious and time-tested political planks. while i could definitely write an entire lj entry on why college is accessible to poor kids, and the problem is not economics so much as our public school system, and why making it easier for kids to go to college isn't necessarily a grade A plan, i'm going to save that rant for another day.
instead i'm going to say, "so, obama, you're the pro-education candidate? who exactly is the anti-education candidate? i'm so glad you're pro-education, because, god knows, that is an ignored issue in elections, and i'm really tired of all these anti-education bastards!"
okok.
so maybe new orleans and iraq aren't ancient.
but he didn't really give any strategy. it was all declaration.
national healthcare program? i'm all for that. i don't have insurance. but, again, this is an old and much-debated issue. it's really easy to jump on the bandwagon, but what we really need is someone who can successfully pilot that wagon to healthcare heaven. i would have loved to hear an actual plan instead of some rambling story about how the south is less racist than it was 50 years ago, and therefore we should elect obama?? what??
everyone ate it up too. everyone was freaking out and worshipping him for taking the easy way out. i realize its still early in the process, so i'm going to let this one slide, because i really want to join the crowd and love him. im a follower, what can i say? actually, i'm just anti-hillary.
and i'm not just cynical. there's a boy in one of my classes who also went and spent 15 minutes of class time ranting about almost the exact same stuff im saying here.
ok i wish this had been more clear, but i have to leave for class. maybe i'll focus more later. but here you go.
-e.
first of all i would like to brag about how witty i am because i made a joke about how the weather forecasters are obviously republicans when it started to rain on us and everyone around me laughed.
so.
i admit that i haven't seen that many political speeches, so maybe i just have unrealistically high expectations.
my only other experience with a politician was that time that whitney and i got our picture taken with kinky at his midnight rally, and we completely missed everything he said since we were too busy taking pictures of our newly pedicured feet. that and whitney and emily jr (old roomie) were probably picking on me like usual. all i really knew about kinky was that he seemed to be the lesser of many evils and/or useless candidates and he wanted to give teachers a raise.
so obama.
i didnt know anything about him, which is why i went to OBAMARAMA 2007... to educate myself. and also because for some reason he became an overnight phenomenon, worshiped by college students far and wide.
i knew he was a democrat, and black-- though not black enough, apparently, since his blackness comes from africa, and not slavery. that was about it.
i was really struck by how the whole thing seemed to be a rock concert benefitting new orleans rather than a political rally, but i digress.
obama said a lot of stuff. i know he probably felt like he needed to talk for a long time to justify the pains it took to assemble a crowd of 20,000 in his honor. but i think that when you have been standing for four hours in the rain, that short, sweet, and to the point is the way to go.
and in any case i can pretty much summarize everything he said in one sentence:
"we need: national healthcare, better access to college for poor kids, to end the war in iraq, and to rebuild new orleans."
i defy you to find a democrat who doesn't say the exact same thing.
wait. hold up. i bet you could even find a bunch of republicans too.
point being
those are obvious and time-tested political planks. while i could definitely write an entire lj entry on why college is accessible to poor kids, and the problem is not economics so much as our public school system, and why making it easier for kids to go to college isn't necessarily a grade A plan, i'm going to save that rant for another day.
instead i'm going to say, "so, obama, you're the pro-education candidate? who exactly is the anti-education candidate? i'm so glad you're pro-education, because, god knows, that is an ignored issue in elections, and i'm really tired of all these anti-education bastards!"
okok.
so maybe new orleans and iraq aren't ancient.
but he didn't really give any strategy. it was all declaration.
national healthcare program? i'm all for that. i don't have insurance. but, again, this is an old and much-debated issue. it's really easy to jump on the bandwagon, but what we really need is someone who can successfully pilot that wagon to healthcare heaven. i would have loved to hear an actual plan instead of some rambling story about how the south is less racist than it was 50 years ago, and therefore we should elect obama?? what??
everyone ate it up too. everyone was freaking out and worshipping him for taking the easy way out. i realize its still early in the process, so i'm going to let this one slide, because i really want to join the crowd and love him. im a follower, what can i say? actually, i'm just anti-hillary.
and i'm not just cynical. there's a boy in one of my classes who also went and spent 15 minutes of class time ranting about almost the exact same stuff im saying here.
ok i wish this had been more clear, but i have to leave for class. maybe i'll focus more later. but here you go.
-e.