Thursday, August 28, 2008

Barack Obama's Nomination Speech

The speech was pretty good. I think he's a great orator and can capitalize on emotions. I couldn't believe how full the stadium was too. 

On an episode of Democracy Now I heard someone from Harper's magazine talk about how Obama would be a shill for corporate America. I didn't listen to his arguments, but I started thinking about the nature of politics. I don't think there are any politicians who don't have some connections with big business. It seems like you can't get anywhere in the political system without some help from people who already have a high position. And they always want something in return. 

Is that compromise, or being a complete pushover? Large corporations are what make most of the nation's money, but they shouldn't be allowed to do whatever they want. On the other hand, a good politician should be someone who is able to compromise. I hope if Obama gets elected he will put a clamp down on big corporations to force them to act ethically. Maybe Kucinich could help him out with that. 

Today I listened to Fresh Air. I regret that I didn't catch the name of the man she talked to, but he was an advisor to both Obama and Mccain when they were drafting a bill to limit the effects of lobbyists on campaigns. He talked about the number of lobbyists who quit their firms to temporarily work for the campaigns. Apparently Mccain has twice as many former lobbyists as Obama. And, most of those former lobbyists in Mccain's campaign are in high level positions. Obama doesn't have any in high level positions.  He's filled those positions with scholars. 

The speech tonight made me excited for the upcoming election. I don't think Obama is perfect, but nobody is. I really hope he can do everything he's saying he can. I guess we'll see. 

Oh, and how did Obama memorize that entire speech? I wonder if he had that clear screen thing the mormons use during conference, so they look like they're getting revelation. 

1 comment:

Alex said...

He probably had the magic glass screens or some variant thereof... I was wondering that myself.
Or maybe he just has crazy memorization powers.