Obama the Democratic Choice

Barak Obama is the official nominee for the Democratic party in the 2008 presidential election. After discussing this with friends and pondering it since Tuesday, I have decided that I don’t like this much. Until he makes a decision on who to have as a running mate I, and several of my other democratic friends, are not planning on voting for him.

For my friends, they don’t trust him. They see him as “a republican in disguise.” I couldn’t get any elaboration on this, but one went on to say that he is not true in his speeches and he isn’t for black people (both of the friends who said this are black). One said that he will never understand what it is to be a black person in the South and, no matter where he came from is a “Starbucks.” This enmity about Obama on the part of some black people is something I have heard a great deal. At my school, while the race was still going on, we did a random, brief poll in the dorm and only one of the people I talked to (out of 15) was definitely pro-Obama. He was very... loyal. I previously wrote a blog on debate and could use him in that segment just as easily. He didn’t seem to know a great deal about Obama’s early career and attacked Clinton for associations on her husband’s part, but never Obama’s associates. He said that Rev. Wright didn’t represent Obama and it was wrong for anyone to think so, but was very cocky when the photo of President Clinton with Rev. Wright came out and used it to link Clinton to the pastor and attack her choices of friends. Eight of the rest were Republicans and held varying views of McCain, most were very pro-Huckaby.

As for the other 6, they were all female in the field of engineering, science, or mathematics and none of them could decide. I got the impression that they felt, as I did, that if they supported Clinton, they would be labeled feminists and dismissed in any argument as loons. None of them felt comfortable supporting Obama. Most, if not everything they saw, was him giving speeches in front of a cheering crowd, but nothing he said really came as genuine. This is definitely how I felt. Now I agree that his is a brilliant speaker with a great deal of political savvy, even if his supporters want to call it him being genuine. He is a politician, just like Clinton and McCain. The problem I have is that he has no credentials to present that would, in my mind, make him a great president. He strikes me as business as usual, maybe they painted and got new carpet, but nothing has truly changed.

One of the scariest things I hear from all of my black friends and acquaintances is that they are going to be voting for whoever his vice-presidential candidate is. They say that if he picks someone they think has the ability and integrity to be president, they will vote for him, but if he doesn’t, then they will stay home. One or two said they would vote for McCain, but when others said that they were going to stay home they changed their minds. I agreed that who he chooses for his VP will dictate how I vote, but they took it further. They said that there was no way he would get through his presidency without being forced out of office or, shockingly, assassinated. I couldn’t go that far. When I asked if that was what they wanted, they said that what they wanted was for him to be a vice-president or Secretary of State and then run for president. The distrust they had for Obama and the Democratic party was very suprising, but I agree that I don’t really support this candidate and the way the party has run from Clinton because of her husband. I will have to watch his VP choice closely and then make my decision, but I really want someone to defeat McCain. I hope he chooses wisely.