Shuck and Jive


Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Obama Is Teflon

I watched all three presidential debates and the vice presidential debate. This last showed the clear distinction between the candidates. McCain has nothing much going for him and he tried to make it about Obama. Obama easily weathered McCain's attacks. He addressed each with facts then spoke to the camera about what he thinks Americans need to do. He will win this election and he will do it on his terms. I made a similar comment after the first debate.

Come January 20th when Obama takes office, America will be in a heap of a mess. I don't envy Obama's task. These next few years--I mean decades--will require of Americans something we have not done since the Great Depression and World War 2. We will have to work together for a common purpose larger than any of us. We cannot predict the specifics but we can know that our lives will be changed dramatically. This will happen regardless of who is president.

This is our time. When I say "our" I mean every American. More than that, I mean the human race. It has been said that the American military is at war while Americans are at the mall. This is changing. No more military battles to secure "our way of life." This way of life which has been to consume and discard beyond Earth's means is ending. We won't be battling an enemy like our parents and grandparents did in WW2. We will battling for a new way of life.

All of our efforts will be focused on energy, food production, green technology, and volunteer service to rebuild our infrastructure for a post-fossil fuels future. We will be cooperating with our neighbors to grow food locally, to help each other stay in our homes, to make these homes energy efficient and sufficient, and to help each other through crises that these changes (and our previous lack of response to change) will bring.

We are in for a huge challenge. This challenge will be larger than any we have faced before. It will require new levels of cooperation locally and globally. Can we do it? Obama says, "Yes, we can."

It appears that he'll have the opportunity to see if Americans have it in them.



11 comments:

  1. I look forward to this struggle with hope. Fear and despair are stalling tactics in which we can no longer afford to indulge.

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  2. John and Snad, you two have veils (curtains) over your eyes. You are living in a different Universe than the one I am in. Barack Obama is not going to stand up to the challenges of our time. He is for maintaining the Empire--the Corporation/Western Civilization/Competition driven/Global Economic Order. He does not intend to change the definition of globalization and free trade capitalism as they stand today. On the two most important issues-economy and foreign policy, he stands with the Neo Con candidate John McCain. The Neo Cons and Neo Liberals have the same common goal-one world corporate socialism. You are in a dream world if you believe that he will lead us toward sustainable peace, energy and prosperity for the World. Obama, like McCain supports the Government bailouts, so called "free-trade" agreements, the World Trade Organization, NAFTA and American occupation of the Middle East as well as Israel.

    Why do you feel that everything will work out fine if we maintain our Empire? It is time to let the Empire fall and get us back on a track of peace, love, and prosperity. Barack Obama is not going to start us on that path. He is going to keep us on the path we are already on, which is self-destruction.

    His presidency will be **NO** different that Bill Clinton's, except maybe worse.

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  3. Rachel,

    pppppppffffffflllllllllltttttttttt

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  4. What I meant to say, Rachel (actually, that IS what I meant to say, but now, for the translation):

    You think Clinton was bad?!?! Where have you been for the last 8 years?

    I don't think everything will work out fine with Obama. We're in one hellava mess. I don't envy the poor sap who inherits this chaos, but under Obama it will be less shitty than under McCain - if he lives long enough to sign his first veto, that is. And Palin?!? I know it's getting on towards Hallowe'en, but that idea is too scary for words!

    No, I don't think Obama's gonna change the world. McCain, however, will - for the worse. And the Libertarian plan would have us walking over the stinking bodies of the starved and homeless, chanting "at least they're free". Brilliant.

    You're guy doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of getting elected in our lifetime. Not a frickin' chance. Neither does my guy, Kucinich.

    We're not idiots just because we disagree with you, Rachel.

    Nuff said.

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  5. "It is time to let the Empire fall and get us back on a track of peace, love, and prosperity. "

    This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius, age of Aquarius... Aquarius! Aquarius!
    Harmony and understanding
    Sympathy and trust abounding
    No more falsehoods or derisions
    Golden living dreams of visions
    Mystic crystal revalation
    And the mind's true liberation
    Aquarius!
    Aquarius!

    Sorry. Just having a moment there. :)

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  6. Snad,

    Somebody once said "freedom is when you have nothing else to lose."

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  7. Somebody once said "freedom is when you have nothing else to lose."

    Holy crap.

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  8. yeah, it was Kris Kristofferson and he was tripping when he said it. His publisher wanted him to leave that line out because it made absolutely no sense to him. But it does fit well in the song. Sort of like "'scuse me, while I kiss the sky". Do you think anyone's vote is influence by those lyrics?

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  9. John and Snad,

    I think I get it. If you support Obama and we have some "international crisis" the first six months into his presidency, will you support another war in the Middle East or Russia?

    Read Bidens speech from Yesterday...it talks about an impending crisis, and how Obama's decisions will be very unpopular at first, and that they will need our help...

    ABC article

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  10. You really want to read that article. Biden said,

    "I probably shouldn't have said all this because it dawned on me that the press is here," he joked.

    I am going to be laughing my ass off (and crying) at you Obama/Biden supporters in two years when we have more wars and our economy is worse off. But McCain and the commie, lying, torturing, mass- and individual-murdering, spying, welfare Republican whores are no worse.

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  11. Rachel,

    That was a weird speech, all right. I have no idea what it is about.

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