A semi-serious post. Wow. This should be interesting. In
Anna's comment to my last post, she asked what I, an Illinios Republican, thought of Barack Obama, an Illinios Democrat and potential Presidential candidate.
Although I'm not ready to vote for the guy, I have been impressed with Obama. He is one of the best speakers I've heard for quite awhile. He also seems to have positioned himself as a centrist and as someone willing to work with people on both sides of the aisle.
Obama's
website says that he is against meth, violence against women, sex offenders and hurting federal judges. Hard to disagree with that. He also has a pretty good stance on
national security. One of the things that makes me think that I could stand to learn more about this guy is his stance on
immigration -- actually a balanced, well-thought out and realistic view (i.e., no, we can't deport 11 million people tomorrow) -- it is also a fairly conservative view. Although there is a lot of fluff and very little substance in terms of his issues statements on his website (pretty much par for the course with any politician), from what I see, he has some good ideas.
Now, even with all of the sunshine he's blowing up our collective ass on his website, I have a couple of problems with Obama. First and foremost, Obama is a traditionalist gun control activist. He wants to ban semi-automatics and increase possession restrictions. He also voted against the bill to limit the liability of gun manufacturers for gun related deaths and crimes. These antiquated views completely miss the point, but that will have to wait for another blog entry. Second, Obama, like most Democrats, has criticized the war in Iraq and the war on terror generally. I understand and appreciate the view that we could be handling the situation better, and I like that Obama's criticism hasn't just followed the party line. However, like every other critic, he hasn't come forth with any real ideas for change. I really don't like blanket criticism without any offer of alternative solutions.
So, I guess that I like him about as well as any politician, Republican or Democrat. He is better than the screaming right-wing christian fanatics, and better than Teddy Kennedy and his crazies, too. It will be interesting to see if he can remain a moderate as the election gets closer and his party continues to pull him left. Please just don't let him get mixed up with Hillary. She sucks.
A lot.
p.s. This isn't the first time I've shown some appreciation to Obama, although
the last time I mentioned him, a tiny little democrat sent evil thought waves at me in an attempt to make my head explode.
