Obama's Acceptance Speech Hit Some High Notes, but His Themes Won't Hold Up
Reader Comments
national health care
The more the citizens of the U.S. allow the government to become involved in the personal interest of the people, the more control it will have over them.
Welfare for example was meant to teach a trade and find work for the unemployed. Now it is used to provide an income for the lazy.
The State governement is making the employers take childsupport from the dead-beats. If the employer does not, he/she has to pay for it out of his/her own pocket. The responsibility is no longer the parents, but the employer's.
Once health care is nationalized, the government won't stop demanding the rights of the U.S. citizen to be put aside. The slippery slope will stop when the U.S. is like China and the citizens are zombies.
Undecided Lurker
I generally lurk, watch, and listen.
I just have to say that the vehement words coming from the Obama supporters, who do not seem to like concerns about their candidate to be voiced one single bit, are pushing me in the direction of John McCain.
You see, I DO think that his being a POW is honorable, and that he acquitted himself honorably under the most difficult of circumstances... more difficult than 99.999% of all people in the world have any right to criticize.
Being a soldier, I know that deployments, and the changes that happen to the people involved, sometimes end marriages. I can only imagine what 5 years and a bunch of torture would do. Who are you to judge? Nearly half of us have been divorced under lesser strains.
I would like to hear the substance of this "change" rather than just spouting that he will produce "change." Having seen socialized medicine, I don't want it or anything that resembles it. I would like to see what affect removing the exemption than insurance companies have from the Sherman Antitrust Act would have. Let's try that first. I'd like to hear some real substance on the other subjects as well.
I'd like to hear Sen Obama honestly address his relationship with Ayers and explain why he lied by minimizing his contact and dealings with him. It's obvious that he dealt with him more than just being his neighbor or a casual acquaintance. I want to hear him explain it instead of trying to suppress the story. I'd like to know why he continued in Wright's church for 20 years and only left the congregation after it became publicized that the Reverend damned America. I don't think that was a fluke.
It appears to me that writers who supported McCain in the past and now can't say enough bad things about him have a weak point in saying that somehow the Senator has "changed." I don't see such a change.
What I see in McCain's choice of a running mate is someone who has taken on the energy companies and seems to have done some good. I see someone who has taken on her own Republican party and gone after corruption with vigor. I don't get the impression of a "soccer mom" at all... and I'm wondering where the soccer moms are who should be gravely insulted by someone intimating that they have no value in society.
Hopefully, the debates will allow these candidates to truly showcase their detailed plans and policies.
The slanderous rage that comes from Obama supporters towards McCain and anyone who even questions Obama makes me think that perhaps they are not clear-thinking individuals at all. It seems that they are willing to say anything about McCain to tear him down, not just including but especially his imprisonment by the North Vietnamese under horrible conditions, which I have respect for.
These commenters, and those on many sites, do not sound like me. Perhaps that's my clue. Perhaps if people who behave like this are the people who support Obama, I don't want to be like them.
I do not see honest political discussion going on at all; I see partisan slander and name calling and trying to suppress any dissenting discussion. Seems to me that while you tout America, you are not living up to her ideals. Seems to me I wonder what would happen if people like you get into power.
" Why should we ignore his 20-year association with his preacher (and inspiration for the title of his 2005 book), who proclaims, "God damn America!"?
Come on really. Isn't this old news by now. Yeah his preacher said some messed up things but they were onlly out takes of the whole sermon. MAybe you should go and sit in church with this pastor and see what he really is saying. :-(
Devoid of Content
Here's a column that is just about 100 percent devoid of any substance, authentic analysis, or content. From top to bottom, it's all just Republican talking points,completely worthless.
Can you really be as stupid as you sound?
What kind of fool are you? Do you think Obama designed the podium himself? Right. As for the lame comment about visiting the soldiers, I'll let previous comments stand.
Do you think that when the GDP goes up, the middle class suddenly prospers? How many people lost their health insurance while the GDP rose? Under the Republican yoke, traditional measures of productivity have become uncoupled from the well-being of the nation as a whole.
I find it unbelievably priggish that you would expect a candidate to disassociate himself from anyone we or you find distasteful. William Ayers? He's not in prison, is he? He has not been santioned or ostracized by society, has he? So should Obama unilaterally shun him just to make political points? Same for the preacher--as a black man, he has plenty of reason to say "God damn America." Lord knows, a lot of the world feels the same. Sorry you don't like to hear it.
Yes, they are important things about who he is: someone who makes his own decisions, and doesn't live his whole life in an effort not to offend anyone peering into the fishbowl in which he lives.
By the way, aren't you the mainstream media? You write for US News and World Report, for Pete's sake. Stop pretending your some kind of prescient outsider.
Let's see, what else? Well, $4.00 dollar gas hasn't undermined his position at all. New drilling won't produce oil for years. And the oil that is produced will be sold on the world market to the highest bidder. There's no law saying it has to stay here and bring our gas prices down.
As for McCain's differences with Bush, that might have been true 8 years ago--I liked McCain then. But as far as I can see, he's lost all traces of the maverick that we found so appealing. He's just toeing the party line now.
Finally, a lot of people found Obama's speech very inspiring, and anything but workmanlike. I would think anyone would find it a breath a fresh air after listening to that mumbling, bumbling brush-clearer for the last 8 years.
Not one of your points stands up under scrutiny. If I did my job as well as you do yours, I'd be out of work in a week. Maybe I should send my resume to US News.
Is this satire?
Yes, stay in your hotel room; that's the only honest thought you express. Your ideas make me think of Tammy Faye's eyelashes for some reason, though in your photo you bear a startling resemblance to Robert Bork. But the Pergamon Altar bit! I have to admit that's brilliant. Did you get that from "The Google?" If Sarah Palin can be our VP, I suppose you see a sort of Ted Sorenson role for yourself. How humiliating that the democrats, who finally have their act together, have only you and Sarah in opposition. You obviously haven't heard the stories of her miraculous 1 month pregnancy and her daughter's 5-8 month absence from school. Oh, those crazy Christian convictions! Egad, I have to find my way back to Michael Kinsley now and protest his link for leading me here. I stopped reading him a year or so ago, but check in every now and again to see if he's come back to form. Apparently not.
Mr. Barone,
Thank you so much for your thoughts. Your comments help to enforce why I am voting for Obama. Your lack of objectivity and inability to tell the truth about facts does not help your credibility. Your opinion is your opinion, but when you try to prove you point with inaccuracies it is a shame.
I've voted conservative for every election I've been old enough to vote in, but even I take serious offense to your commentary, Mr. Barone. You make yourself (and your party) seem awfully desperate desperate by attempting to spear Obama with the same worn-out lines that conservative news sources have used to try to bring down a man who, even I must admit, is an impressive statesman. In the future, you're better off avoiding reference to allegations like "Obama didn't make time for the troops in Germany" that are breathtaking falsehoods. For the sake of our party, stick to criticism on substantive issues, and if as it seems you have no intelligent criticism to offer, kindly shut up. We Republicans would thank you.
I've voted conservative for every election I've been old enough to vote in, but I take serious offense to the nature of your commentary on these issues, Mr. Barone. You make yourself (and your party) seem awfully desperate by attempting to singe Obama with the same worn-out lines that conservative news sources have used to try to bring down a man who, even I must admit, is an impressive statesman. In the future, you're better off avoiding reference to allegations like "Obama didn't make time for the troops in Germany" that are breathtaking falsehoods. For the sake of our party, stick to criticism on substantive issues, and if as it seems you have no intelligent criticism to offer, kindly shut up.
