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Month: October 2008

  • Powell endorses Obama and brings tears to my eyes…

    Powell endorses Obama and brings tears to my eyes…

    October 25, 2008 @ 10:46 am

    General Colin Powell has endorsed Obama, and yes, it really did bring tears to my eyes. Doing my morning read through of various blogs and reports, I found the news at The Huffington Post. His reasoning is interesting, and his conclusions about Obama’s stance are insightful, including this tidbit. Powell defended Obama against McCain’s latest charge that the Democrat’s policies are quasi-socialist:

    “We can’t judge our people and hold our elections on that kind of basis. Yes, that kind of negativity troubled me. And the constant shifting of the argument, I was troubled a couple of weeks ago when in the middle of the crisis the campaign said ‘we’re going to go negative,’ and they announced it. ‘We’re going to go negative and attack his character through Bill Ayers.’ Now I guess the message this week is we’re going to call him a socialist. Mr. Obama is now a socialist, because he dares to suggest that maybe we ought to look at the tax structure that we have. Taxes are always a redistribution of money. Most of the taxes that are redistributed go back to those who pay them, in roads and airports and hospitals and schools. And taxes are necessary for the common good. And there’s nothing wrong with examining what our tax structure is or who should be paying more or who should be paying les, and for us to say that makes you a socialist is an unfortunate characterization that I don’t think is accurate.”

    Asked whether he still considers himself a Republican, Powell responded, “Yes.” [emphasis mine]

    But here’s what brought tears to my eyes:

    Powell . . . spoke passionately against the insinuations by some Republicans that Obama is a Muslim.

    “Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he’s a Christian. He’s always been a Christian,” he said. “But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no, that’s not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, ‘He’s a Muslim and he might be associated terrorists.’ This is not the way we should be doing it in America.” [emphasis mine]

    Okay, I also teared up because I am very encouraged that we might actually get Bush and his cronies OUT.  But I was incredibly pleased to see such a respected man, someone who has experience working against terrorism coming out of small Muslim factions, speak positively about being Muslim in America.  Wow.  Someone had to say it – in the press – sooner or later, but it’s been a long time coming.

    My guess is that if Powell had endorsed McCain, Obama would have a very tough 3 weeks ahead of him. With Powell’s endorsement, I think the chances are now excellent that Obama will be our 44th president.

  • Why I’m Voting Democrat

    Why I’m Voting Democrat

    October 17, 2008 @ 12:25 pm

    I’ll make my basic position clear. I’m voting Democrat this election. Long before anyone threw their hat in the ring, I knew I was voting Democrat in 2008. I can’t, in fact, think of a single Democrat so stupid, insipid, ridiculous, or otherwise undesirable that I wouldn’t cast my vote for a change of leadership in the White House. From the time Bush was elected almost 8 years ago, I’ve wanted to get the Republicans out of the White House, where I consider them to be quite dangerous. I find the last two terms of war-mongering and finance-mangling to be ample evidence for my position. As much as I found Kerry milk-toast, and Gore steady but uninspiring, I voted whole-heartedly for their chance in the Oval Office, and was incredibly depressed at the result of both elections.

    Even if there are Republicans out there who are responsible both fiscally and socially, who think about their role as representatives of a people, of all kinds of people, and who are capable of handling the reigns of responsibility with integrity, the party as a whole doesn’t seem to back them up. The party as a whole seems to run the financial health of the government into the ground every time, abandons the social issues which hold our communities together and keep people from falling through the cracks, and quite frequently embarrasses us on the international stage.

    And I don’t think a different Republican president, no matter how progressive, could shake that machine up. I don’t think McCain really is a maverick, I think he’s someone who will huff and puff and then basically do what the entrenched Republican machine will advise him to do. The country will keep operating with the same policies and approaches, perhaps slightly modified but essentially continuing what we have see for 8 years. I confess, I understand completely why Obama keeps tying McCain to the Bush presidency. It is incredibly unlikely that McCain will be able to shake off its pressures, regardless of what kind of Maverick he may think he is. And let’s not even go to the Palin-takes-over-the-Presidency issue. Gawd.

    My position: Any damn Democrat is an improvement over the Republicans. So it was that 8 years ago, and again 4 years ago, I committed to my party of choice even before the Donkeys chose their candidate. Then I prayed that someone would rise through the ranks who was actually exciting, inspiring, motivating. Frankly, I had my doubts. However earnest, Democrats can be so… boring.

    That said, I am incredibly pleased that the Democrats managed to get not just one but two energetic, brilliant, far-thinking candidates to the heat of the primaries, and that the candidate who came out on top is well-spoken, well educated, and has those qualities I look for in a president: responsible representation, ethics, good administrative and negotiating skills, and the ability to surround oneself with brilliant and insightful people.

    If crappy vote-counting doesn’t do us in, I’d say we’ll be welcoming the Obamas to the White House in January. And I won’t just be pleased to see the regime change, I be excited for the new directions we’ll be headed.

  • Obama as a Black Man

    Obama as a Black Man

    October 16, 2008 @ 7:29 pm

    Is it important to me that Obama is Black? Is it significant? Yes, and no. It’s not controlling my vote. I won’t be voting for or against Obama based on his skin tone or racial heritage. I won’t, as a white person, worry about a President Obama favoring Blacks in America over whites, or that he’s some kind of “reverse racist” (a term I dispute, but it works here).

    But Obama’s race is significant in a couple of important ways

    First, anyone’s heritage, their life experience, contributes to the adult they are.  Obama can’t escape that influence any more than I can. It’s significant that he grew up as a Black man in a racist nation. It’s also significant that he grew up within a white family, as a brown kid. It’s significant that that as a Black man, he attained a Harvard education. It’s significant that his Black heritage comes not through the ancestry of people who were once held as slaves in this country, but rather through his Kenyan father, even if his father wasn’t a daily figure in his upbringing.

    But it doesn’t stop at race. It’s significant that his income is higher than most. It’s significant that he’s male. It’s significant that he’s relatively young. It’s significant that he’s a family man, that he is raising two young children. It’s significant that he’s in a long-term relationship. It’s significant that he is religious, that he’s a Christian. It’s significant that his early political life was formed in community organizing, and it’s significant that Chicago was the site of that early political experience.

    And one could switch around the variables – upbringing, race or ethnic heritage, religion, family, education, early political foundations, what cities or populations he worked with and for. And all of  those  experiences would shape a different person, with a different slant on the world. But race, or religion, or any of the items on that list are not litmus tests, they are not defining points which in and of themselves make him fit or unfit for the job of president, or senator for that matter. Each of Obama’s influences, along with many others, have shaped him, as McCain’s have shaped  him.  This, I believe, is the only real bearing Obama’s race has on who he is as a man and a politician. And it’s very important, but it’s not a simple as “hey, he’s Black – does it matter?”

    And, though it’s not really talked about, McCain’s white heritage is just as important as Obama’s Black heritage. And in much the same way, but with obviously different results.

    Second, it’s significant that Obama is black because of what it shows about the slow but steady disintegration of racism in the United States. I’ve been thinking a lot about this during the whole campaign, but it notched up a bit after Obama’s acceptance speech at the DNC. I was sparked by hearing the comments of (I think) John Lewis, on the 45th anniversary of King’s “I have a Dream” speech. I won’t be able to quote him directly, but the essence of his reflections were that, 45 years ago, the great hopes for him and many other blacks at the gathering were for fair treatment in jobs, in housing, in education, in daily life. That a black candidate for president could be sponsored by a major party, that a black candidate might have an actual chance at the presidency, was not really in the picture half a century ago; it would have been enthusiastically welcomed, but not considered a realistic hope.

    And yet here we are, 45 years later: a viable Black candidate for president. It’s stunning. It brings tears to my eyes, accompanied by a silly, happy grin. It chokes me up on a pretty regular basis. Like many others, I feel that history has been made, regardless of whether Obama wins the race or not. And of course, as someone who childhood coincided with the civil rights movement of the 1960s, I get quite the tingle in my toes at the thought of a black American in the White House. Who’da thought?

    It’s not that “racism is dead in America.” It’s not. But it’s slowly breaking down, in the face of reality, and I think largely due to the increase of families which are themselves multi-racial. Obama’s background is one example. Kids who grow up in diverse families are more realistic about the abilities and humanity of folks whose heritage is a little, or a lot, different than their own.

  • Some old thoughts on Sarah Palin

    Some old thoughts on Sarah Palin

    Not just any woman…

    I echo what millions of women have been saying: I don’t want just ANY woman in the white house, I want an intelligent, informed president, and if she’s a woman, that’s great. It’s more important to me that the prez be fair-minded towards women and men, than that the prez BE a woman.

    Palin’s family life…

    I could give a crap about Palin’s family – the pregnant unwed teen, the new baby (with Down’s or not), that she has five kids, none of it. I do give a crap about her attitudes towards the teens, the moms, the kids, she governs. And it might raise an eyebrow if her policies and her personal life do not quite sinc up; I might wonder how she balances family and political life. But I wonder the same things about male politicians and representatives of the populace. And wondering is not the same as believing that these facts are central to a person’s ability to govern. Peripheral, perhaps, but not central.