The case for Barack Obama

This will be incredibly dated in about a month, and it has been already published, but no matter, I feel i've been neglecting the blog as of late:

The case for Barack Obama

To quote the opening line of the greatest movie ever made; “I believe in America.” Not the geographical location, not what America has become, but what it stands for, what it represents, but more importantly, what it has the possibility to become.

Modern America is a place run by big business, where the dollar is king and where years of neglect have turned it into a cultural wasteland. It would be too big a claim to say that this is entirely the fault of the Republicans, of course not, this has been going on for decades. America is a divided land, not just between rich and poor or black and white, but divided between the past and the future. America is a twentieth century superpower struggling to come to terms with its changing role in the world. America has always been a place of big ideas, but they have been short of these lately. When international events called for swift action, America took the lead. Both World War 2 and the Space Race were won by America’s big ideas. The world again needs big ideas, and swift action. There are three main challenges facing the world today that again require America’s leadership; climate change, the Middle East, and the worldwide financial crisis. Barack Obama is the man to lead America, and the world in these three areas with modern, new and radical approaches.

McCain, and the Republican campaign in general is rooted in the past, in the American history rather than the American future. The idea that “staying in Iraq for 100 years” until the job is done can help the Middle East or have any impact on world terrorism, or that “we need to drill for oil in America and drill now” can serve as some sort of quick fix solution to the energy crisis are ideas that would have seemed dated during the last election four years ago.

It would be an exercise in naïveté of course, to assume that when Obama takes office, that overnight the world will become a better place and that America can leave its dubious recent past behind and once again take on other world superpowers like the emerging Chinese and Indian economies with their billion strong workforces and cheap, educated labour. But it will finally usher the White House into the twenty first century, where technological advances and changing social norms have affected the way nations deal with each other. You need to face your enemies head on, discussing your differences across a table rather than a battlefield. Obama’s assertion that his administration would sit down to talks with Iran represents a monumental leap forward in international diplomacy.

It’s easy to criticise George W. Bush’s public speaking fluency, or lack thereof, but the task becomes almost unnecessary when his abilities are compared to Obama’s oratory skills which come across as educated, yet personable when compared to McCain’s no-nonsense straight talking huffing and puffing.

The two elephants in the room, trying to hide amongst the furniture are of course Sarah Palin and McCain’s age. John McCain is 72 years old. He has chosen not to release his medical record, and not to put too fine a point on it, he could die any day now. He spent five years in a POW camp in terrible conditions as has been touted by the Republican side as a virtue, but this is not a qualification to run the United States of America, if anything the mental trauma and physical affects (he can’t raise his arms above his shoulders) should give cause for concern. Obama’s youth is one of his main selling points, alongside the fact that he is savvy, media friendly, handsome, and technologically aware, not to mention that he is younger than the parents of most of the people reading this. John McCain was born the same year as Buddy Holly, the year of the first ever live sports television broadcast and the launch of Aer Lingus. This is a man who has never sent an Email, a man who if you asked him about Facebook, he would probably show you his passport.

If John McCain is elected and then dies within the four years, it is Sarah Palin who will take over, with her finger hovering over the missile button as she winks at Russia. There is no cause for flippancy, but the thought of her in the same building as the button is a scary thought, never mind having control over it. This is a woman with “strong family values” with a seventeen year old pregnant daughter and whose political experience prior to being governor extended to being the Mayor of a town smaller than Tuam.

It is true that Obama has spent most of his time in political life actually running for president, but this should not be seen as a disadvantage, Obama is one of those rare politicians with hope, with a unique optimism for the future because for him, the future is full of possibilities and unexplored avenues, for McCain, these avenues are coming to an end. McCain is a relic of the American past; Obama is the only hope for the American future.