Obama
So, finally I'm going to write my endorsement of Obama, which has been a long time coming. I've been a big fan since before Iowa, but, anyway, it's time I finally wrote something about it.
There are many, many things I like about this guy. I like that he is not concerned with the old divisions--the baby-boomer divisions--in America. I like that he is reaching out to voters who don't usually have high turn outs: black and young people. I like that he recognizes all the mistakes that Bush has made--not just in foreign policy, but also in energy development and in taxing and spending priorities. I like that he is not populist in the old-fashioned way: he is not simply offering incentives to lower-class workers, he is trying to harness the changes that are happening in the world to radically alter what it means to be lower-class in America today: for instance by educating people better and upgrading the infrastructure in order to ease, rather than fight against, the transition to a service, information-based economy.
Another thing I like about him is his fundraising principles. Rather than try to take money out of politics--a noble but probably misguided strategy--Obama has radically democratized the donation-giving process. Obama is accepting millions of small donations from small donors who can pay online (like me), instead of relying on lobbyist or old political junkies intent on buying influence. Interesting to note that this was the intended result of the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2002.
In sum, I think that Obama is the candidate of the future, and I am really thrilled to see that he got the nomination.
Here are two articles on Obama that I think are particularly interesting, both from the Atlantic: Joshua Green on Obama's fundraising; Andrew Sullivan on Obama as the candidate of the future.
There are many, many things I like about this guy. I like that he is not concerned with the old divisions--the baby-boomer divisions--in America. I like that he is reaching out to voters who don't usually have high turn outs: black and young people. I like that he recognizes all the mistakes that Bush has made--not just in foreign policy, but also in energy development and in taxing and spending priorities. I like that he is not populist in the old-fashioned way: he is not simply offering incentives to lower-class workers, he is trying to harness the changes that are happening in the world to radically alter what it means to be lower-class in America today: for instance by educating people better and upgrading the infrastructure in order to ease, rather than fight against, the transition to a service, information-based economy.
Another thing I like about him is his fundraising principles. Rather than try to take money out of politics--a noble but probably misguided strategy--Obama has radically democratized the donation-giving process. Obama is accepting millions of small donations from small donors who can pay online (like me), instead of relying on lobbyist or old political junkies intent on buying influence. Interesting to note that this was the intended result of the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2002.
In sum, I think that Obama is the candidate of the future, and I am really thrilled to see that he got the nomination.
Here are two articles on Obama that I think are particularly interesting, both from the Atlantic: Joshua Green on Obama's fundraising; Andrew Sullivan on Obama as the candidate of the future.
posted by Brian at 5:12 PM
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