Why America Needs Barack Obama

Why would I spend hours of my time, including caucusing in Nevada, writing speeches, and organizing events instead of studying? Here' why.

I respect the classic Republican agenda. I respect and understand the need for a lean federal government that respects states' rights. But I believe that there is a role for government in regulating the economy and providing a social safety net (just as Adam Smith did). I've studied enough economics in enough countries to know how taxes place artificial barriers on the market. A national sales tax like Huckabee wants would be great, it would encourage savings, but enforcement would be exeedingly difficult and it's politically incredibly unpalatable. I can't for the life of me understand though why the Republicans only response to our current economic mess is to cut taxes, cut taxes, cut taxes. We have a $9 trillion deficit - 33% of our entire GDP. That's eating into public and private savings, limiting investment and slowing growth. Clinton can't take all the credit for increasing the Dow Jones by 500% - but keeping long-term interest rates low, increasing access to easy credit, through deficit reduction and balanced budget has been shown to work. Electing a Republican to the White House would only continue the Bush Administration's failed economic policies. The Republican Party has lacked the political will to pay for a war, to balance the budget, to fund no child left behind - instead puting it on my generation to pay for. In short, the Republican party has lost the mantle of fiscal responsibility - they had 6 years of controlling every branch of government and squandered it. I also respect the need to keep the nation safe (just as the Democrats did during WWI, WWII, Korea, Kosovo, etc.). Military spending is now the highest since WWII per capita. We're spending more to win the war on terror than we did on the Cold War, but we're no less safe. America is now more unpopular around the world than at any other point in our history - only 3% of Turkish citizens have a favorable rating of America, and that's a NATO ally. Why is the US election getting such coverage from around the world? What does it mean, if the world could vote, that we'd have a Democrat in the White House? There is a place for soft power, for diplomacy, for building real alliances - that's how we change international relations, that's how we save the planet.


I do respect John McCain. I respect his stance on climate change, on immigration reform, on campaign finance. If elected, he'd have a good chance at bringing the Republican party kicking and screaming back to the center and away from the polarizing partisan politics that have plagued Washington for too long (sorry, I dig illeration). But this isn't the general election yet. Today is about picking the nominees. Obama has energized a new generation to get involved in American politics. Every Democratic primary and caucus has more than doubled 2004 numbers. He's done it all on his own - he didn't get elected because his last name was Bush or Clinton. He became the first African-American President of the Harvard Law Review, taught at Univ. of Chicago, practiced civil rights law for a decade, was a State Representative and held elected office longer than Clinton, and ois nly the second black Senator since reconstruction on his own. This is a historic time. It's time for a new beginning.

Fired up!