Obama Makes History!!!

Sleep is not an option... I just witnessed what may come to be known as the most important, powerful, and well delivered speech this country has seen since the days of JFK and Ronald Reagen... The days when we believed that our President would fight for us and protect us not because of our political beliefs... but because we believed it in their eyes and in their words... I got goosebumps when I saw the crowd of over 85,000 people await Barack Obama's speech... and when he finally arrived on stage my heart dropped... I immediately discarded my political views and just took in the history of the moment... 45 years ago on this day Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I have a dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln memorial... He spoke with passion...with sincerity.... and with every ounce of his heart and soul... You can always see his emotion pouring out when they show highlights of that famous speech... "WE SHALL OVERCOME!!!!!" ... 45 years later African Americans... Women... all people... have overcome their own struggles and their own inner demons... to elect a Black man to be their nominee for President of the Democratic Party...

Of course throughout the speech I made my notes on policy issues that I disagreed with... and on simple statements that were either taken out of context or completely wrong... but ... at times during that speech I stopped my entire critique and just listened... I listened to his words that seemed as if they came straight from my tongue and straight from my heart... In fact, there was one line that I used myself verbatim not too long ago... It dealt with the American Spirit and the American Promise... Obama said, " It is up to us as INDIVIDUALS... it is the people that stand up and demand change" ... For the briefest of moments... Barack Obama... spoke for me...

As the speech ended I caught myself wiping a tear from my eye... and it didn't take me long to figure out where that tear had come from... We as human beings need leadership... we need to be inspired... we become so thirsty for it that we will look in the darkest of places... and in the deepest corners of the Earth... but ... at some point we need to ask ourselves what it is that we are searching for?!?!?!? WHAT CONSTITUTES REAL POLITICAL CHANGE?!?!?!?

I will do my best not to bore you with too many policy issues... but there are a few things in Obama's BEAUTIFUL speech that must be addressed...

Obama tries his best to compare John McCain with George W. Bush... He says that since McCain has voted with Bush 90% of the time that they must have similar judgment and similar views on most of the issues... This could not be further from the truth... First, let us realize just how many votes there are in all of Congress... "well over 300"... A healthy amount of those votes are non-binding resolutions with no consequence at all that each Senator votes for with their party to remain in good standing... Another healthy amount of those votes are the unanimous ones that both Republicans and Democrats vote together on in which they are congratulating some professional sports team for winning their respective championship... ... ... But let us talk about that 10% in which McCain sided against Bush and WITH OBAMA...

He voted against the Bush tax cuts not once but TWICE... on the principle that they were a little too generous to the top 1% of the income bracket and mostly because Senator McCain believes that you can't have TRUE tax cuts without controlling spending...Spending that Obama and most Democrats will allow to go through the roof if they take over the White House and Congress and the Senate... Then McCain went against his own party again and again... in an effort to inflict CHANGE... to address the issues of climate change, campaign finance reform, and....... let us not forget that he almost sacrificed his entire Presidential Campaign last summer when he decided to work with Ted Kennedy (the most liberal Democrat in the Senate) on an Immigration Bill that allowed Illegal Immigrants a path towards citizenship... and rightfully so... As a side note I happen to have been in DC when that happened... and they lost count of how many death threats he got during that time period...

His Presidential campaign staff told him to stop fighting that battle... that he didn't stand a chance to become the Republican Nominee unless he voted every time with the Party... His response to this was simple... He FIRED his entire campaign staff and started from scratch... He says from time to time, "I'd much rather lose a political campaign than a war" ... any type of war... Does this sound like anyone remotely close to George Bush?!?!? This brings me back to the definition of REAL POLITICAL CHANGE! Real Political Change is not voting with your party 100% of the time like Obama has done in his few years as a Junior Senator... and it is not being voted the most Liberal Democrat in the Senate... It's having the ability to tell your party at any given time that they are wrong... and working with the other side to get things done...

To be fair... Obama very well may have it in him to say no to his party and work with the other side to get things done... but... he has not yet... Aside from his attacks on McCain and his laundry list of democrat ideals that will surely increase Government spending, raise taxes on EVERYONE, and weaken our Military Defense... I thought his words were extremely inspirational and something to build on... I must say after hearing his speech that I do have a renewed faith in Barack Obama... and if he is elected President I will support him 1000%... and I will pray each day that he has the strength to do what is in the best interest of this country... and protect my family, my constitution, and those I love...

However... what people must understand is that McCain has an answer to every issue Obama brought up... and on many of the issues they indeed feel the same way. In a campaign as nasty as this one is turning out to be it would make it impossible for anyone to notice that fact... but ... IT IS THE TRUTH... They agree on Immigration, on campaign finance reform, and to a degree on energy and education... and those same words that were spoken that brought a tear to my eye I have heard come directly out of John McCain's mouth... The only difference is he was not reading it charismatically off of a teleprompter in front of 85,000 people... he was at a town hall meeting staring each individual square in the face...


FAITH ALWAYS

B. Maher