Obama and His "Great" Speech Still Worry Me

Much of the media on and off-line is caught up in the speech that Barack Obama gave last night in Iowa. Inspirational, electrifying, presidential and countless other laudatory adjectives are being tossed around.

I listened to the speech this afternoon and read the transcript for good measure. Mr. Obama gave a good speech in front of an excited crowd, I don't know how it compares to others delivered after the Iowa caucus since I haven't heard them yet.

I have a few thoughts and concerns that are worth sharing.

Mr. Obama has obviously been listening to MLK Jr. tapes on the campaign bus, there is certainly nothing wrong with this, Dr. King was without a doubt one of the great orators of the 20th century if not of all time. Nonetheless its mimicry and unoriginal in a slightly abrasive way.

Mr. Obama continues to worry me by rhetorically suggesting that he is an agent of change while producing little of substance or policy that would actually indicate how this change might occur. He also continues to hype a plan of reconciliation. In a terribly scary comparison, George W. Bush made a great many rhetorical promises and spoke often of uniting the country while he was running for President in 2000. Look where that got us.

Quotes from the speech and my concerns:

Mr. Obama-

You said the time has come to tell the lobbyists who think their money and their influence speak louder than our voices that they don't own this government, we do; and we are here to take it back.

Concern-

Mr. Obama employs more lobbyists than any other candidate save for Mitt Romney. Also Mr. Obama has stepped up his attacks against John Edwards who recently pledged that no lobbyist would find employment in his White House.

Mr. Obama-

The time has come for a President who will be honest about the choices and the challenges we face;

Concern-

Mr. Obama doesn't seem to understand the realities of the challenges he will face if elected and the fights that must be undertaken and won if America's Constitution is to be restored and any progress made in Washington, DC.

Mr. Obama-

I'll be a President who finally makes health care affordable and available to every single American the same way I expanded health care in Illinois – by--by bringing Democrats and Republicans together to get the job done.

Concern-

This issue has been well covered in the blogosphere. If Paul Krugman says the economics of your plan won't work the solution isn't to attack him its to develop a plan that will work. I
don't know much about Mr. Obama's role in health care debates in Illinois, Mr. Krugman thinks it's not a good corollary and the Boston Globe has done some reporting on it.

Mr. Obama-

This was the moment when the improbable beat what Washington always said was inevitable.

This was the moment when we tore down barriers that have divided us for too long – when we rallied people of all parties and ages to a common cause; when we finally gave Americans who'd never participated in politics a reason to stand up and to do so.

This was the moment when we finally beat back the politics of fear, and doubt, and cynicism; the politics where we tear each other down instead of lifting this country up. This was the moment.

Years from now, you'll look back and you'll say that this was the moment – this was the place – where America remembered what it means to hope.

Concern-

This is a well written and delivered bit of public speaking, it rouses the listener's emotions and certainly recalls Dr. King and maybe also Henry's St. Crispin's Day oration. But is winning the Iowa Caucus really that big of a deal? Perhaps what I mean to ask is should it be that big of a deal? Gail Collins fielded this one quite well in this morning's NY Times:

People, ignore whatever happens here. The identity of the next leader of the most powerful nation in the world is not supposed to depend on the opinion of one small state. Let alone the sliver of that state with the leisure and physical capacity to make a personal appearance tonight at a local caucus that begins at precisely 7 o’clock. Let alone the tiny slice of the small sliver willing to take part in a process that involves standing up in public to show a political preference, while being lobbied and nagged by neighbors.

Mr. Obama finished up with a rousing expose on the power and importance of hope. And he's right; hope, as Andy told Red, is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.

Hope alone won't save our country though, no matter how audacious it might be. Its going to take a fight, and I for one want a fighter in my corner, not a conciliator.