Politics and a Thank You
Somebody gave me a lovely gift of a flower on my lj account, and I haven't got a clue who it was, so thank you to whoever sent it, and apologies if it took me a while to notice.
In other political news, I just can't help myself. I kind of have a political crush on Barack Obama. I remember in 2004 watching the Democratic National Convention and wondering why they picked this not even a senator yet guy from Illinois to give the keynote address.
Then, I heard the keynote address.
If you haven't heard Obama's 2004 speech, you should watch it1. It's not only an inspiring speech, it's a pretty amazing piece of oration on its own merits. I've long maintained that I want my president to be smarter and a better public speaker than I am, neither of which seems to apply to the the Shrub.
However, trolling around over at DailyKos, I found this rather insightful piece of speculation about why my mother might still be clinging to the "he's too inexperienced" schtick, which I have to say, I can't get behind. (I'll have more to say about that when I have more time, but I did want to post a link to that blog entry before I lost it.)
Also, I think I might have figured out why my Barack crush is so acute. This article, written in 1995 when he was first running for state senate in Illinois, tells us that not only did he turn down an almost certain Supreme Court clerkship to go work to better the community, but he was also a double major in college: poli sci and English.
Dude, of course I heart Obama. He's an English major. Which really makes it no surprise that he's a great public speaker, now does it?
1 The website americanrhetoric.com has a video copy of the speech, but I can't get the page to load. I have instead provided links to the Youtube version in two parts.
In other political news, I just can't help myself. I kind of have a political crush on Barack Obama. I remember in 2004 watching the Democratic National Convention and wondering why they picked this not even a senator yet guy from Illinois to give the keynote address.
Then, I heard the keynote address.
If you haven't heard Obama's 2004 speech, you should watch it1. It's not only an inspiring speech, it's a pretty amazing piece of oration on its own merits. I've long maintained that I want my president to be smarter and a better public speaker than I am, neither of which seems to apply to the the Shrub.
However, trolling around over at DailyKos, I found this rather insightful piece of speculation about why my mother might still be clinging to the "he's too inexperienced" schtick, which I have to say, I can't get behind. (I'll have more to say about that when I have more time, but I did want to post a link to that blog entry before I lost it.)
Also, I think I might have figured out why my Barack crush is so acute. This article, written in 1995 when he was first running for state senate in Illinois, tells us that not only did he turn down an almost certain Supreme Court clerkship to go work to better the community, but he was also a double major in college: poli sci and English.
Dude, of course I heart Obama. He's an English major. Which really makes it no surprise that he's a great public speaker, now does it?
1 The website americanrhetoric.com has a video copy of the speech, but I can't get the page to load. I have instead provided links to the Youtube version in two parts.