Why Obama?
David Gutowski is the man behind the music blog Largehearted Boy. He recently contacted me to ask if I would be interested in submitting my thoughts in writing for a new area of his blog entitled Why Obama. It is a series of guest essays by musicians and authors, where they share their support for Democratic United States presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama and offer arguments about why we need him elected. My thoughts are below:
There is a fairly new business term being bandied around lately particularly amongst the online social media pundits. The term is ‘Thought Leader.’ Wikipedia describes the term as so; “Thought leader is a phrase used to describe a futurist or person who is recognized among their peers and mentors for innovative ideas and demonstrates the confidence to promote or share those ideas as actionable distilled insights.” I believe it is safe to say that Barak Obama can be described as a thought leader.
His fierce intellectual abilities and the clearheaded writing in his book “The Audacity of Hope” have helped him attract many adherents. It puts him in a unique position - Obama may well be one of only a few presidential candidates in recent history that can clearly articulate a vision of America’s future, confidently explain his positions and comfortably orate in front of large crowds. He is an inspirational candidate.
America badly needs an executive leader with intellectual vision.
This is not to say that Obama comes without some serious flaws. For many he is not liberal enough and in recent weeks he has shown us that he can deftly sidestep some issues when they have proven to be unreliable in providing support for his candidacy or have caused discomfort amongst certain constituencies. He may be inspirational but he didn’t become the Junior Senator for Illinois without deftly parlaying his considerable political skills. He is amenable to a different version of ‘change’ when it becomes convenient. That is an unfortunate trait that exasperates Liberals but if he is to be elected he has to attempt to embrace all voters. As a nation we long ago moved to the political centre and Americans are not going to vote for anyone they perceive as too far to the Left or the Right.
Obama arrives as a candidate with almost perfect timing. America is clearly ready for a sea change. The change that he refers to in his speeches is now becoming part of the everyday currency of our conversations. It is no longer a glib statement; it is a fascinating embodiment of the raw power that has propelled Obama’s candidacy this far. This election is about two things - the war in Iraq and the Economy. Americans require change in both of those arenas. They can no longer stomach the thought of what John McCain has called an ‘Endless War’ in Iraq. [You can hear him talk about this in a video compilation of his interviews and speeches here] The war is costing us billions of dollars a month and of course Americans are now very aware that this money would be well spent bolstering an ailing economy here in the USA. If there is improvement in the situation in Iraq before November then the candidate with strongest position on our economy will be in a great position to win. McCain has been ridiculed for his lack of a sound economic policy and he has had nothing to say beyond promising to make the Bush tax cuts permanent which would be a huge fiscal mistake. McCain’s weakness in this area opens up an opportunity for Obama’s camp to deliver some strong proposals for fixing the economy.
Obama has been called weak on foreign policy but then so was George W Bush eight years ago. On Obama’s recent trip through Europe and the Middle East war zones he was treated with a presidential deference because the leaders of foreign countries have tired of being treated with antipathy by the current administration. Like Americans at home they see great opportunity for change. It is hard to imagine that in 2000 before he was elected president, George W Bush would have been able to find such strong foreign support for his presidential candidacy as Obama found on his recent trip.
We need a visionary leader with the ability to repair the damage that the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Rice gang has wrought upon our foreign relations. Europe and the Middle East need to be embraced as never before. The isolationist policies of our current administration and its ‘war on terror’ have poisoned the minds of many young radical Muslims in those countries as well as in Pakistan, Afghanistan and beyond. Their hatred of us is paramount. Our next president has to take on the huge burden of proving to many millions of disaffected young Muslims that we as a nation are not the “Great Satan.” We as a nation have not all followed the policies of our current administration as it ran roughshod over our own liberties, never mind the liberties of those currently lost inside the nightmare that is Guantanamo Bay. We as a nation do not support torture.
Obama offers hope for change and I believe that it is possible for us all to embrace that change. This doesn’t mean that he will become our next president. He is just laying the groundwork for a more open and transparent government. If John McCain defeats Obama he will find it very difficult to govern using the tried and tested ways of the Republicans that we have seen in the last eight years. The people are speaking out and they need to be heard whoever wins in November. I sincerely hope that Barak Obama will be the next President of the USA.
July 31st, 2008 at 8:30 am
obama is a badly needed karma correction for the united states.
July 31st, 2008 at 8:41 am
@Dave–I agree with you on the flaws. I worry that Obama could easily turn into the George McGovern of the 21st Century–all it will take is for him to do what McGovern did —pick a deeply flawed running mate and get hammered into the ground over it. I really want Obama to succeed, another four years of the Bush mentality in this country…I don’t want to think about it. The Road Warrior will look like a vacation in Ibiza by comparison.
Obama DOES need to stop himself from making idiotic statements about Iran and Israel and other scary foreign policy issues. He seriously needs to have at least ONE meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff before uttering things that upset the applecart in sensitive areas of diplomacy that involve military attacks. He’s going to get in office–if he can avoid the McGovern factor– and learn that we can’t just PULL OUT of Iraq no matter how badly we NEED to. Now that we are there, we’re SCREWED. And that’s what the JCS will demonstrate with the intel and the logistics of the current situation.
July 31st, 2008 at 9:54 am
This election may be about the war and the economy , but let’s drop the scharade here: when is an election NOT about those two things? This election, and Obama and McCain need to be focused on one thing: the environment and global warming. It simply and logically trumps all other issues.
Ruined Environment = No Economy = No Civilization.
Sustainable Environment = Sustainable Economy = Sustainable Civilization = Humans Get to Survive.
Q.E.D.
July 31st, 2008 at 1:56 pm
I recently heard this: “A Leader who trusts no one will never be trusted.”
I think GWB’s issue’s have helped people to understand two things:
1. Honesty is more believable than stupidity.
2. Smart, open communication can solve problems, of which there are many.
The only real hope for Obama is that McCain is old and used up, like a battery that’s been passed through a number of devices over the years.
There’s no such thing as the Energizer bunny. It’s time for some fresh juice.
July 31st, 2008 at 2:31 pm
@John Henry Dale—I agree with the idealism, but the reality is that most voters are NOT going to willingly accept the limits needed to keep us from destroying ourselves. If they were, we’d all be using bicycles now. We had our early warnings about the current state of things as early as the 60s and nobody wanted to do anything substantial about it. We are great at paying lip service, but I point you to the Easter Island example, where every SINGLE LAST RESOURCE was devoured, every last tree was cut down until finally the place could not sustain life anymore.
That is our planet in microcosm. We are basically fucked. How long it takes us to finally realize the final and utter doom of the planet is another thing altogether…but until we stop living in a hyper-consumerist, fossil-fuel dependent mindset, we’re basically polishing the brass on the Titanic.
I personally LIKE consumerism, as it is what keeps food on my table–any creative person is basically sustained by the consumerist behavior of others, but we need some kind of sanity check in there somewhere. Can we consume MORE music and film while consuming LESS gas and oil? Can we bake more cookies and make fewer bullets? The world would be a happier place. Too bad the military industrial complex doesn’t see it the same way.
August 25th, 2008 at 8:17 am
You are all blind and ill-informed. Where in the hell did you guys go to college? Are you even educated on how our government works? You can blame all the crap that has happened in the last eight years on Bush, sure if you want to cop out. But in reality, BUSH is just a political figure head AS IS ANY PRESIDENT WE ELECT. If you think he makes the rules/decisions think again. Yes he can veto (thats about all he can do). TRUTH — The democrates run congress right now and have for quite some time. Here in lies your problem and THIS is why shit isn’t getting done. As for Obama…seriously…a taxpayer voting for Barack Hussein Obama is like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders. You get the point.
August 25th, 2008 at 8:30 am
@Jackie,
On behalf of the blind and ill-informed, thanks for your kind and sincere thoughts. You obviously don’t live in the USA, if you did you’d notice the damage that has been done by the current administration. They have weakened America’s image abroad so much that the USA could only stand and watch as Russia tore Georgia apart. I presume you’ll blame that on Congress too huh?
August 25th, 2008 at 11:36 am
@Jackie- Iraq? The president, and his VP and cabinet, have A LOT of power to create and shape international policy. This is the biggest reason I support Obama—it seems he is less likely to be ruled by special interests when determining international policy and will be much more likely to work with the International community (rather than against, bullying wherever he sees fit), which I would argue is actually better for America’s economy in the long run. Certainly the Democrats are a ‘lesser of two evils’ as far as truly representing Americans, but the differences in foreign policy between a fiscally conservative (IE- pro corporate and anti freedom) president like Bush and a progressive like Obama are incredible. This is a very important election.
October 2nd, 2008 at 12:25 pm
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