In the past few months I’ve been disappointed that the Obama I voted for during primary season seemed to move closer and closer to center and away from his promises of change and a reinvigoration of government for the the people. Tonight, he’s back, and the gloves are off. Obama delivered an empassioned nomination acceptance speech, to a live audience of over 84,000 attendees and at least 25 38 million via TV, that brought his personal story and presidential plans to Joe and Jane America.
Obama responded to the pernicious smears and character attacks. He demonstrated his understanding of socio-economic struggles of Americans, acknowledging the role of personal, community, and government responsibilities in repairing the damage of 8 years of Bush.
Our government should work for us, not against us. It should help us, not hurt us. It should ensure opportunity not just for those with the most money and influence, but for every American who’s willing to work.
That’s the promise of America – the idea that we are responsible for ourselves, but that we also rise or fall as one nation; the fundamental belief that I am my brother’s keeper; I am my sister’s keeper.
He made clear that a vote for McCain is a vote to continue on a path that 81% of Americans think is wrong.
. . . next week, in Minnesota, the same party that brought you two terms of George Bush and Dick Cheney will ask this country for a third. And we are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look like the last eight. On November 4th, we must stand up and say: “Eight is enough.” . . .
But the record’s clear: John McCain has voted with George Bush ninety percent of the time. Senator McCain likes to talk about judgment, but really, what does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush has been right more than ninety percent of the time? I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready to take a ten percent chance on change.
When it came to policy, Obama paused and repeated for effect: an Obama administration will cut the taxes for 95% of Americans. (Translation: anyone making less than a quarter of a million dollars). It’s an important item to emphasize since 53% of Americans expect an Obama administration to raise taxes, even though they believe he’ll handle the taxation issues better than McCain.
And it looks like Obama has been paying attention to polls about what Americans want because he touched on education, alternative energy, Social Security, job outsourcing, and foreign policy. More impressively, he managed talking points on abortion, the 2nd Amendment, gay marriage, and immigration, which most sensible people would agree with. His goal on those issues: common ground.
We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country. The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than for those plagued by gang-violence in Cleveland, but don’t tell me we can’t uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals. I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives free of discrimination. Passions fly on immigration, but I don’t know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers.
But my favorite point is his goal to cut the fat in the government budget to assist in paying for the changes he’d like to put in place.
Many of these plans will cost money, which is why I’ve laid out how I’ll pay for every dime – by closing corporate loopholes and tax havens that don’t help America grow. But I will also go through the federal budget, line by line, eliminating programs that no longer work and making the ones we do need work better and cost less – because we cannot meet twenty-first century challenges with a twentieth century bureaucracy.
Can you have any doubt that billions of dollars are wasted annually as funds are set aside for inactive or impossible projects, excessive supplies, extraneous employees and no-bid contracts? The government is known for red tape, and to streamline it to make every penny count in the budget will be a monumental success on its own.
In 44 minutes, he managed to (hopefully, finally) put the main McCain attacks to bed, mark McCain as bosom buddies with G.W. Bush, outline the importance of community and working across party lines, and share his plan for America. Inevitably, some people are going to complain about the lack of detail, which would be hard to include in such a short, sweeping speech. What he did do though, is provide hope and direction.
America, our work will not be easy. The challenges we face require tough choices, and Democrats as well as Republicans will need to cast off the worn-out ideas and politics of the past. For part of what has been lost these past eight years can’t just be measured by lost wages or bigger trade deficits. What has also been lost is our sense of common purpose – our sense of higher purpose. And that’s what we have to restore.
which goes back to his earlier point,
America, we are better than these last eight years. We are a better country than this.
If you want to know more about his specific policies, I direct you to the Obama Campaign’s Scrib’d Account, where you can find policy papers on variety of topics. I’m going to be reading too this weekend.
The most popular ones thus far?
- Plan to Support Working Women & Families — 6797 views
- New Energy Plan for America — 5452 views
- Emergency Economic Plan — 2593 views
Did Obama’s speech resonate with you? In the event you missed it, here’s the video complements of the Obama campaign.
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