Sometimes a Great Nation: Barack Obama

I like many Democrats have been trying to decide which candidate to back.  All three front runners would be such a vast improvement over the regime currently in control of the White House.  I also pined for Al Gore to throw his hat in the ring, although I can understand why he will not and do not begrudge his insistence on standing on the sidelines.

So that has left me pondering the differences between Hillary, Obama and Edwards.  Many times I have wondered if Kerry would have adopted Edwards' two nations theme if things would have gone differently.  I much preferred Edwards to Kerry.

Although for some unidentifiable reason, I have never been warm to Hillary.  She espouses positions with which I agree for the most part, and she is certainly shown clear competence in her own right in the Senate.  But, I still get this nagging worry that if Hillary were elected that she would turn out to be centrist Democrat, and I am not willing to sit idly by while the gap between the haves and the have nots widens.  Nor am I willing to sit quietly while our economy flows steadily downhill towards China.

What this country needs more than anything else is a new definition of success and a new definition of progress.  I see many good things coming from Hillary, but I do not see that.  Although, I believe strongly in the populism that Edwards exudes and I believe he would make an excellent Vice President, I am not sure that he is popular enough to seize the day.

Seizing the day should be what the 2008 campaign needs to be about.  We sat still for eight years giving Clinton the opportunity to balance the budget and put off the domestic programs that the poor and the middle-class deserved.  That surplus was our surplus, we did not put off domestic programs to improve education, health care funding, and the rebuilding of small family businesses in order to just give them away to the upper, upper echelon of America's economic heirarchy.  That surplus was just as much ours as it was theirs.

So I would be willing to risk all for a fresh and new start for America.  I would be willing to go out on a limb if I felt the candidate could put forth a reasoned position that would help the majority of Americans, not just a few.

With that I have been reading "The Audacity of Hope" by Barack Obama.  I had thought that Obama was too much of a consensus builder to actually reach out and seize the day and bring the reforms that we need in this country.  But I am becoming a true believer that Obama has the simple common sense coupled with the recognition of the need for fundamental changes in America.

So for now, during these early stages -- Obama has my support.  I believe America is a great nation, and I believe it is time for us to start behaving like one again.