Senator Barack Obama In Washington Square Park
Originally uploaded by rhatchmiller
What did you think of the speech?
What do you see as the big ideas of the upcoming election?
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A Blog for the Big Ideas Stream at the Residential College at Broome Street
What did you think of the speech?
What do you see as the big ideas of the upcoming election?
2 comments:
I personally didn't get to hear his speech because I had class at the time, yet I have heard a lot of comments and discussions about it. I don't support Obama in his race for the dem. nomination. I feel that he is just too juvenile to be able to gain the majority of the votes to become president. Many of his platforms seem to be developed on the spot without having real support or logic behind them. He is a very charismatic speaker and his wife is amazing, but he is just not ready.
To give one example of his bad campaign plan: he keeps reiterating that he never voted to support the war in Iraq. True, he didn't, but not because he didn't want to. He wasn't a senator (or even in politics) at the time, ergo had no power to vote for or against entering Iraq. True, Mrs. Clinton did vote in favor of the war, but so did most of the other dems. in congress. It seemed at the time what America wanted, and at the time she would have been ridiculed for not doing so. She was representing her constituents.
To conclude, while Barack is a very charismatic speaker (and I'm sure he won over a lot of support last Thursday) he is not ready to run our country, and therefore will not have as much a shot in the general election as Senator Clinton.
Having watched (er..listened) to the speech, I found it exhilirating to be surrounded by so many politically minded people; people who didn't mind standing for two or three hours at the outskirts of the park, catching only glimpses of the Senator as he gestured and wooed his way across the platform (pun intended).
I did not, however, feel the power of his words. Having followed his speeches in the past, and staying up on political culture, these words seem a little over-used and under-supported. He spoke about his strength as a newcomer to Washington. As much as I would like the government to change, I don't think it can happen as quickly or as efficiently with someone who still has to learn the ropes. Our country does not run on the Constitution alone.
In addition, I felt a bit jaded as he joked about being a "hope-monger", a rhetoric that has been repeated throughout his campaign. Of course hope is not a bad thing, but it's not a tangible thing. To me, it implies probability of victory. Yet we are actually voting, and if elected, the Senator will actually have to change the country. We are not relying on hope here, but on the power of our voices.
Stictly in an NYU sense though, it was pretty neat to have something to cheer for together. After all, last Thursday may have been the closest to a football game that we'll come.
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