In the midst of the obsession of the mainstream media to watch every McCain grimace, and count the number of times that Obama agreed with his opponent, or catch the few McCain gaffes on names and facts, thus far I see that no one today has said much about his idea to create a league of democracies that will apparently move across the globe like the Fantastic 4 thwarting evil-doers like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (pronounced AK-Ma-DEEN-ah-JAD, senator McCain).McCain's idea of international diplomacy seems to sadly be...
Last night I was able to watch the Nevada debate with a couple friends. One of them, Jennifer, is also a Barack Obama supporter. The other, Chad, is unfortunately still fed up with the way the country's leaders have been acting and he assumes that future leaders will be no different. I understand his worries. I have felt the same way for years. I am almost 29 years old now and for the past 28 years I have felt that there is absolutely nothing I can do to change the way things are in this country. I have felt that whether a Republican or Democrat resides in the White House would make no difference. The same political games would be played on the American people just to make them believe they're changing the world when in reality our politians are simply doing whatever it takes to get in the White House. Once there, they know in their hearts that they only have four to eight years to help themselves and their friends out as much as possible. This idea has never in my life been more self evident than with the recent Reign of Bush, father and son. Even though America was lucky enough to have a little breather after Daddy Bush's four year term, President Bill Clinton wasn't able to change the foundation of America enough to stop Baby Bush from returning with even more horrible thunder than his father had. I fear the same will be true with Hillary Clinton.
The Nevada debate was very similar to every other debate I've seen. They talk quickly about issues which are very important to me and hopefully to all of you; however, with the ninety second time limit, and especially the thirty second rebuttal time limit, it is extremely hard for any candidate whether it's Barack, Hillary, or John to really lay out their step-by-step plan to fix the education system, or the economy, or whatever. But that is our debate system and we Americans need to take what we can from them. What I have taken is that Hillary Clinton remains a part of a broken system. In every debate I've seen, including last night's, she is playing the game that politians play just so they can enter the White House. It is an unfortunate fact that in this day and age of national television where people in South Carolina can watch a debate from Nevada; most people change the channel and would rather watch Everybody Loves Raymond. Hillary knows this and she uses it by playing to her Nevada audience saying exactly what the people of Nevada want to hear. And when she's here in my home state of Pennsylvania, I'm sure she's going to try and say exactly what Pennsylvanians want to hear. Some might just call this good politicking, but in my eyes that type of behavior throws up a huge red flag. It is an homage to the same type of leaders that we've had for decades. Now is the time for a serious change and even though she might be a different gender than any other past American president, a change in anatomy is not the kind of SERIOUS change I'm talking about.
Barack Obama could ride on the fact that he's black, but he doesn't want the country to be like that. He doesn't want Americans to vote him in on the color of his skin. He sees the country as he thinks it should be and instead of doing whatever it takes to become president THEN try to change the world, he tries to change it every day by behaving today as he hopes it will be tomorrow. America shouldn't concern themselves with issues of white, black, and brown because we already have enough issues between red and blue. To acknowledge a difference between gender or race is to accept the way things are now, but to dismiss it is a pledge for an attempt at real change. If you saw the Nevada debate then you should know that America is ready for that change. The first ten to fifteen minutes of the debate was focused by the media on gender and race. Right away the media started in on Hillary for being female and Barack for being black; there was even a remark to John Edwards about being white. It didn't stop until someone in the Nevada audience actually yelled at the moderators for asking "race based" questions. He probably got thrown out of the debate, but I would like to personally thank that man for speaking up and saying what I'm sure many Americans in that audience and at home were thinking.
In my opinion, and I'm sure it's the opinion of many Americans today, a Democratic president is a must in order to attempt to balance out the debacle that was and is the Reign of Bush. My belief is that Hillary and John don't have quite the weight to them that is needed to tip the scale back to normal. Only Barack can put this country back to where it needs to be. The country needs to not be hated by almost every other country in the world. The country needs to not be controlled by our usage of oil. The country needs to not be one of the lowest ranked countries when it comes to our education. The country needs to not be separated by such a huge gap in economic class. The country needs to not waste our money on immigration plans that obviously won't work. The country needs a president like Barack Obama.
