For poker purposes apparently Barack Obama not only plays poker but supports a bill to study whether or not online gaming should be legal. So does Hillary, so as a Democrat for one of my main issues both fit the bill. Well this Saturday Barack was speaking to 20,000 people right across the street from where I was staying. So I dropped in. Now I am biased. I was probably already going to vote for Barack anyway and the speech really did not change my thoughts in that regard. Here are some things that struck me:
1. There were a lot of young people. Not just college age either, I would say 10% of the crowd was high school aged kids that just wanted to hear him speak. That choked me up a bit when I thought about it and likely speaks to why he is gaining so much momentum.
2. Barack is a funny guy. There were many moments were he really made everyone in the arena openly laugh. At one point he was talking about his theme of “hope” and how his opponents think he is naïve to have so much hope, he then said “it is like they think I am a hope monger”.
3. The big criticism of Barack is that he is long on message and short on specifics. I do not really mind that but I can see how it bothers some people. Plans should be fluid when you are talking about something like a government. It is the moral compass that should attract us and I think Barack does a good job with that.
For many reasons I have been a Democrat since I have been able to vote. For too long our plans have been long on specifics and short on message, it was hard voting for Al Gore or John Kerry because they really did not move you to want to volunteer, or donate. The Republicans took the fight to them and they caved. People do not like that in leaders.
February 9th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
I was really bothered talking to my mother today. She lives in Louisiana and in case you did not know the politics in La. are fairly corrupt. She wanted to vote for a Democrat and couldn’t because she was listed as an independent. She has only recently registered and she does not recall being given the option.
All of this reaks of the same BS that has existed where regular peoples votes don’t count and the insiders continue to control everything.
What is likely the funniest part about it is, it isn’t even controversial in today’s politics. It has become accepted. Fact is if you want to vote you should be able to and politicians should be for that.