Re: Barack 2008!
A new leader is what this is about. Dah…
The US is looking for a new leader. In order to do this they have two major organisations that are steeped in history and habit. Even back in the mid C19, money was needed to travel across the nation and to advertise/promote their candidates. To do this, they accepted funds from lobbyists and were indebted to them once they took office. Hence they have been figure-heads for those who put them there.
This was not being a leader of those who did the voting so the delegates could vote them in!
Obama has no lobbyists on board!
A leader is someone who guides and inspires others to follow. They do not do all the work. Right now, across Australia, schools are having their investiture ceremonies where their student leaders take their oaths. They are not expected, nor should they, do all the work. Consensus is reached by listening to other students and
representing them. They have all been voted into their positions because they inspired others to let them guide them.
Politics is, by definition, ‘compromise for survival’.
This is one of the traits Obama seeks to change although
flexibility is quite a different trait from ’selling out’:
McCain first declared that President Bush's tax cuts were unwise but now favours making them permanent.
"Somewhere along the line," Obama said, "he traded those principles for the nomination."
Obama is adamant on having an independent body to monitor Capitol Hill instead of “the toothless House Ethics Committee and its inability to punish members who break ethics rules”. Read problems:
http://www.commonblog.com/story/2007/5/16/13388/8551
Clinton, speaking at a rally in Texas today, said: "I am in the solutions business. My opponent is in the promises business."
This is rhetoric! Why is Obama so popular in Illinois if he has not proven himself in the ‘solutions business’? DYOR
Today Obama’s proposed the establishment of a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank, which would spend $60 billion over a decade to rebuild deteriorating roads, bridges and waterways. Obama said the spending would generate 2 million new jobs, many of them in a construction industry that has been hard hit by the housing market downturn.
Obama chants about ‘unity’. Why?
Even a five year-old knows a tug of war on a rope does not achieve anything but a passage of time, even if it is fun at the time.
If you are to pull down a wall that entraps you then all must pull in the same direction.
Obama has attracted a myriad of experienced, accomplished individuals who have banded together with the vision of shared values as their direction.
In a previous election when Kim Beazley was Opposition leader, listening to his election hype was painful because he constantly criticized and complained. I sent his party an email a month before the election advising my opinion that Australians wanted a leader who portrayed a nurturing figure, one who would take care of the problems and find solutions and all the press interviews were showing were his whinging and whining with no real direction nor hope for change. He needed to alter his image from someone who irritated the listener/viewer and focussed on negatives, to someone who could express empathy and offer an alternative. I compared him to Qld’s Rob Borbidge who I switched off and refused to listen to because he was forever whinging and whining and irritating. How can a potential voter bother to get involved in listening to policy when all they hear is complaining! I have to say that two weeks’ later his public persona changed and he spoke with dignity and paternal concern. I actually began to listen to him! But it was too late. Kevin Rudd, from day one, set himself up as nurturing and paternal. We listened. Can’t say the same of his deputy though!
To lead you must allow people to believe you care about them. Hillary has worked hard and done immense good but she has not portrayed the image of someone who is imbedded in their lives but rather, that she is self promoting. I believe people have voted for her because they have hope that she will make things better FOR them… the blue-collar workers, ethnic minorities et al.
Obama has always listened to gauge people’s concerns:
“… whether people were friendly, indifferent, or occasionally hostile, I tried my best to keep my mouth shut and hear what they had to say. I listened to people talk about their jobs, their businesses, the local school; their anger at Bush and their anger at Democrats; their dogs, their back pain, their war service and the things they remembered from childhood.
… If anything, what struck me was just how modest people’s hopes were, and how much of what they believed seemed to hold constant across race, region, religion and class. Most of them thought that anybody willing to work should be able to find a job that paid a living wage. They figured that people shouldn’t have to file for bankruptcy because they got sick. They believed that every child should have a genuinely good education- that it shouldn’t just be a bunch of talk- and that those same children should be able to go to college even if their parents weren’t rich. They wanted to be safe, from criminals and from terrorists; they wanted clean air, clean water and time with their kids. And when they got old they wanted to be able to retire with some dignity and respect.
That was about it. It wasn’t much. And although they understand that how they did in life depended mostly on their own efforts- although they didn’t expect government to solve all their problems and certainly didn’t like seeing their tax dollars wasted- they figured that government should help.”