The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama

Ever since his keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, my wife has had a political crush on Obama, pre-dating the so-called "real" Obama girl by several years. The day after the convention, she had an "Obama '08" T-shirt and bumper sticker, along with a "Cheney-Voldemort '08" bumper sticker, rushed to our home. He is an electrifying speaker, a quality that is too easily dismissed by many. In a Democratic Party that has been beset by messaging problems, his brand of teflon charisma can't be overlooked.

A lot of people knock him for a lack of experience, but I think experience has a limited importance in this process, and he certainly meets at least the minimum requirements. As I've said before, Wally Pipp had experience, too. Leaving all that aside, what exactly does Barack stand for? What is he going to do as president? Let's see if the type of fervor displayed by Obama Girl is justified. In keeping with the format of these posts, I'm going to leave aside criticisms of Obama, much of which has to do with a perceived lack of experience. This will simply be a review of Obama in Obama's own words.

Barack's got a lot of issues. I mean that literally. He's got, like, double the bullet points in his issues section than any other candidate. As with the other candidates, I'm not going to touch on all of them, but I encourage you to.

Civil Rights - OK, I'm not sure how to judge this. I am more than a little shocked that his bullet points make no mention at all of gay or trans issues, and none at all until the last paragraph of his PDF presentation. On the other hand, none of the candidates I've reviewed so far even included civil rights in their issues section. Perhaps LGBTQ issues are still too radioactive for general campaign boilerplate, but after the Donnie McGlurkin dustup, I'm a little surprised.

Economy -

"I'm in this race to take those tax breaks away from companies that are moving jobs overseas and put them in the pockets of hard working Americans who deserve it. And I won't raise the minimum wage every ten years - I will raise it to keep pace so that workers don't fall behind. That is why I am in it. To protect the American worker. To fight for the American worker."

Like he did with 10 Questions, Barack recycles bits from his stump at the beginning of each issue, and it's easy to see why. While the other campaign sites sound like they're selling you soap, this guy means it! In that one paragraph, I'm ready to vote for him. His economic policies are extensive, addressing trade, labor unions, tax relief for the middle class, several initiatives linked to green technology, predatory lending, and work/family balance.

Education - Once again, there's a lot here. One thing I especially liked was this:

Recruit Teachers: Obama will create new Teacher Service Scholarships that will cover four years of undergraduate or two years of graduate teacher education, including high-quality alternative programs for mid-career recruits in exchange for teaching for at least four years in a high-need field or location.

This is just the kind of thing I'd like to see done for other fields, as well, like law enforcement and the courts. He also wants to reform No Child Left Behind. He even has a plan to educate infants! Great, now I gotta worry about some baby taking my job?

Energy - Mostly what you'd expect, cap -n- trade, tougher mileage standards, biofuels, but then he goes and endorses "clean coal." Chris Dodd does, too, only he calls it "carbon sequestration." See, but I remember reading a story about some carbon dioxide that bubbled up in a lake in Africa and killed a mess of people instantly. Let's iron that out first, eh?

Faith - I don't care if he worships the tooth fairy, but if you must know, he's a Christian and he believes in separation of church and state. You know, like Thomas Jefferson.

Okay, this guy has way too many issues. I'm only doing 2 more. I will read them all, but I'm gonna get arthritis here.

Foreign Policy and Iraq - These 2 kind of go together.

Bring Our Troops Home: Obama will immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq. He will remove one to two combat brigades each month, and have all of our combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months. Obama will make it clear that we will not build any permanent bases in Iraq. He will keep some troops in Iraq to protect our embassy and diplomats; if al Qaeda attempts to build a base within Iraq, he will keep troops in Iraq or elsewhere in the region to carry out targeted strikes on al Qaeda.

Coupled with pressure on the Iraqi government to reach a political reconciliation, increased (read:any) regional diplomacy, and humanitarian initiatives, Obama's plan is a good one, although many, myself included, feel that 16 months is far too long. If the current Congress, of which he is a member, showed some more spine, that timetable could have begun already.

He has the right idea on diplomacy and Israel, but those are proof-is-in-the-pudding situations. His talent as a statesman is encouraging in this area.

Healthcare - Universal Insurance. See my previous 2 sets of remarks on this. I do like that he favors mandatory coverage for all children. Here's what I said before about Universal Insurance:

The problem with the healthcare crisis in America is that nobody but me understands it. People tar Hillary's and other candidates' plans as "socialized medicine", when in reality, we currently have the very worst system of socialized medicine imaginable. Who pays for care in Emergency Rooms for the uninsured? Who pays medical bills for the chronically ill whose medical costs far outstrip the premiums they pay? The only difference is, under the current system, healthy people subsidize not only care for the uninsured and the really sick, they also subsidize huge profits and administrative costs for everyone in the healthcare industry.

Barack Obama is in really good shape to be the Democratic nominee. The guy is a sharp politician, and he's currently leading in Iowa. His positions are solid and thorough, nothing scary. He's much more electric in person than on paper, which is a good thing these days.

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