listening to Obama

Tonight I got to see/hear Barack Obama speak at the University of Oregon campus in Eugene, OR. He focused on issues, which I liked. He said lots of things I liked, about ending tax breaks for the rich, about renewable energy, about raising wages for teachers and funding early education programs, about increasing mass transit, around not accepting campain contributions from federally registered lobbies. His comments were also superficial. He was saying all the right things. That's what politicans do. They're not stupid... well, okay, at minimum they've got smart people working for them. And there were things he said that just didn't work for me, and things I wished he'd said.

He played down the conflict between his and Clinton's campaign, saying that the differences between them paled in comparison to the differences between either of them and McCain. He talked about people talking about how Clinton supporters won't vote for him and vise versa, and dismissed that. He said that the Democrates will be united come November. What I wanted to hear him say is, "even if Clinton wins the Democratic nomination I want every democrate to support her and vote for her."

He talked about the intention from the beginning beging to keep the campaign positive, no negativity, no mudslinging. He acknowledged that hasn't always happened. He said, "you know, when you get hit enough times you can't resist the temptation to hit back." He said, "we (meaning his campaign) haven't always kept to that (meaning keeping it positive." What I wanted to hear him say is, "I acknowledge that despite my promise to keep it positive I have attacked Clinton and McCain at times and I apologize for that."

He talked a lot about unity. But he still talked about "America's adversaries" and keeping American's "competitive on the international market." He talked about the need for new technologies to address global warming and how "we need to make sure those technologies are developed here." He talked about making America a leader in international politics again. So, the unity ends at the border? Cooperation is only for U.S., not for THEM?

He made various references to renewing the possibility of the "american dream." The presidential candidate I will get behind is the one who acknowedges that for the mass majority of people in this country since day one the american dream has been a lie.

He talked about universal health care. But from what I've read he's not talking about single-payer, nor is he talking about seriously changing the policies that require, or at least enable, the bureacracy of health insurance industry, which is a huge monetary drain on the system.

He talks about it being time to bring the troops home. But from what I've read he's made no committment to a deadline or outlined a timetable for withdrawl. Indeed, in his speech he said, "we need to be as careful leaving as we were reckless entering." What does that mean? 1 yr? 5 yrs? 10 yrs?

I think Obama is probably the best to come along, in terms of matching political platform with "electability," since Carter. But he's no Dennis Kucinich and he's no Ralph Nader. Obama ended his speech by saying, "the thing that's going to make it possible for all these changes is you." I do believe a critical mass of people are ready for real change and that it's that critical mass of people that's going to make real change possible, not the president.

I hope Obama is inspiring enough to inspire people past the idol worship that's developed around him to a sense of empowerment that will actually make things happen. And hopefully Obama will shift legslation enough to support that. An article in the Nation summed it up well for me. The authors wrote that, like JFK, a tepidly liberal yet charasmatic candidate can incite a popular movement to take things far beyond what they had actually intended. Here's hoping.