2008 Democratic Convention Review
Posted on 29 August 2008 by Michael Callaway
Just in case you do not know, I am a pretty solid Republican, have been my whole life, so I would suggest you take my views on the Democratic Convention with a grain of salt. As I watched Obama speech I must say that I loved everything he had to say. I thought what he said about taxes was right, his approach with guns was right, I agree with him on the issue of gay people having the same hospital and tax benefits of heterosexual people, I liked how he talked about individual responsibility. I liked everything he said and I doubt that the Republican Convention will be as well put together as the Democratic one was.
The problem for me is I do not think it can happen. I do not believe that there is a single government program that any President, Republican or Democrat is prepared to cut no matter how poorly it is doing. I do not think that the President or their staff will go line by line through the budget and cut the pork spending because one Senator’s pork is another Senator’s essential program. I do not believe that our tax code will be reformed because everyone and I mean everyone, enjoys their own deductions and are so beholden to them that even if the new system is better they will feel like they are being cheated.
It is not that I do not like "yes we can", I just don’t think it is possible. If Obama does become President then I will be the first to tell you that I hope I am wrong. In 1980 when the Great Ronald Reagan became President there were many people who thought that Reagan’s belief that we could beat communism was impossible. In 1970’s the best anyone thought that we could do was contain communism but that it would always be around.
Reagan said no, we can win, freedom can win. Reagan said yes we can and he was right. While we can debate the economic views of Reagan and we can debate environmental policies, we can not debate who was right about the future of the totalitarian regime of the USSR. Reagan said yes we can when many people said it was impossible.
Now, if Obama is right then I want to see him do the town hall meetings with John McCain like he said he would. If Obama is right then I wish he would have taken public money as he promised so that way there would be no question that he really is a different kind of politician. Finally, if Obama is right, then I hope he wins the election this fall.
Popularity: 7% [?]
August 29th, 2008 at 8:43 am
As I sat listening to Barack Obama speak last night (forgoing the end of the Dallas Cowboys preseason game…sigh), I was visibly moved by his speech. That’s saying a lot. If I had to label myself, I’d probably go with “Conservative Independent”, though even that makes me sound way too stick-in-the-mud.
There was electricity in the air. History was being made. A man stood with confidence and composure in front of the world last night and spoke as though he were the descendant of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.
One of my first thoughts was, “Oh crap. He’s talking like JFK. I hope he gets some QUALIFIED secret service agents this time around. You can’t be that idealistic without pissing off some very rich and powerful moguls on the dark side of capitalism.
However, I don’t see how Obama will do most of the things he promised last night, and he didn’t make them conditional statements, which means he has no excuse to fall back on if/when they don’t happen. I think his intentions are obviously good. But the government is historically horribly slow at implementing positive change.
Someone somewhere will be keeping a checklist of Obama promises and revisiting regularly to see what he has accomplished. It becomes a question of execution.
August 29th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
I poop on your political system. I plan on taking the time off from work that is allowed for me to go vote, but instead of voting, I’m going to a nudie bar. I just have to think of a good excuse to tell my boss why I have come back to work smelling like cocoa butter and covered in glitter.
August 29th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Dude(Baron) we get it…your attention starved and deprived.Maybe you have some deep rooted resentment from your child hood and this is the reason you find it necasarry to leave ignorant and irrelevant comments on a blog…probably because your hoping for some weird cyber confrontation…you should look into video games…you can actually play over the top military games online…you and your dorky friends can play all night long if you want…you could probably even wear a headset and talk trash to each other.
August 29th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
@Aaron that was one of the funniest things I’ve read in a while.
September 1st, 2008 at 1:50 pm
I’m gonna have to outright agree with out Mr. Callaway. I can dig Obama’s talk but my cynicism is too deeply rooted to believe that he’s going to pull off a lot of what he advertises.