3 posts tagged “barack obama”
June 3rd, this now historic date in US history, has dragged me back to the blogging keyboard to write about a subject I thought I was done with for quite some time. Even now, after many months getting used to the notion, I can scarcely absorb the significance of the fact that a black man has clinched the Democratic nomination for president of the United States, nary 40 years after desegregation.
While a keen follower of politics, my energy was sapped after the ALP's victory last year. Without Howard around, who was I supposed to hate? Rudd has been a super-competent technocrat, who seemingly inspires through actions rather than words (and God knows if you've heard him speak, words are not his main talent with the notable exception of The Apology). There is not much for me to rail against in the Australian political sphere.
Meanwhile, here in the US, CNN et al managed to dull my interest with their absurd analyses of the candidates -- shallow and sensationalist, typified by their hysteria over a mis-spoken word here, an embarrassing acquiantance there. Certainly the media's anointing of Obama as their chosen candidate from even the early days in the campaign made me a little annoyed that the media tail was trying to wag the primary dog. Then again, when the broad brushstrokes of the frontrunners' policies painted almost indistinguishable pictures (pro-universal health care, pro-environment, anti-free trade, anti-Iraq war), I'm not sure if I could resist the temptation to report on minutiae to distract from the rather dull number crunching that comprise caucuses and primaries.
Hillary will look back at this campaign, and surely should wonder whether if, had she stuck to her knitting -- promoting good policy that had broad bipartisan appeal -- could she have clinched the nomination instead of Obama. Her pandering played right into the hands of Obama's main theme of 'change', and the very politics that the Clintons were so good at was the exact opposite of what was needed for this particular battle.
So now we'll just have to wait and see what Hillary does; mathematically she's sunk, but it would seem highly unlikely that she'll bow out silently. Then again, nor can I see the Obama campaign offering her the vice presidency either; that would simply be counterproductive not to say contradictory.
We live in interesting times!
Barack Obama gave an excellent speech today on the race issue in the fight for the Presidential nomination. I started reading the transcript, and although it ran to seven pages felt compelled to read it all. It was a thoughtful, honest, and -- yes -- inspiring speech that addressed in very frank terms the racial divide that still permeates this country. What is most impressive is that he did so without condescension, without flinching from difficult subject matter, and without attempting to simplify what is a very complex issue.
The speech reminded me a lot of Kevin Rudd's address to Parliament earlier this year apologising to the Stolen Generation, in the sense that it tried to be bigger than the pettiness and cynicism that typifies the current state of the debate, in order to bring the country forward with solutions rather than go through an exercise of apportioning blame and recriminations. Unfortunately, there are still those who can only see the fact that Obama has refused demands to leave his church (for those who haven't kept up with the latest mini-scandal, Obama's former pastor is all over YouTube with footage of him damning America and calling it for example the USKKKA).
Visit Barack Obama's website yourself to check out the speech.
Nice piece from Ariana Huffington on The Conventional Wisdumb on Barack Obama. I see her point about the need for leadership versus demanding detailed white papers on every single issue. I am also heartened to know, however, that Senator Obama has plenty of policy on his website. Speaking of which, it's evident he's been planning his campaign for quite some time -- you can't whip up a very hip, Web 2.0, social networking-aware web infrastructure like he has overnight.
On a related note, Australia is for once in the news here (the last occasion was when Steve Irwin died). And it's all thanks to our Prime Minister John Howard's rather ill-judged comments on Senator Obama's candidacy. For a PM who's widely admired for his political instincts (versus his principles), he got much more of a smackdown than even he expected I'm sure. He seems to be digging in his heels though.
What annoys me most though is his transparent flip-flopping on a variety of issues based on how the political winds are blowing: climate change and David Hicks in particular. For some reason in this election year (oh! there's a reason!) he's decided to be concerned about the environment and the welfare of an Australian citizen stuck in Gitmo for the last 5 years without trial. I just wish our PM had a more optimistic forward-looking vision for the country and demonstrated some leadership rather than promoting FUD for the sake of staying on as PM.
Update: John Howard just received a Wag of the Finger on tonight's Colbert Report! "Leave the ad hominem attacks on Senator Obama to us!" Touche.
