First of all, I agree with the fact that Barack Obama's Democratic nomination acceptance speech was a historic speech, as the Democratic Party has nominated the first black American in our history to the office of president. Truly a momentous and historic occasion.
In the first five minutes, the speech turned disgraceful. His comments took the personal responsibilities of Americans and blamed the failure to meet them on the Bush administration. He talked of "veterans sleeping on the streets," and referred to Katrina. He talked of the proud auto workers, whose jobs in reality were actually not destroyed by the Bush administration, but the wasteful practices of the UAW, among other things. He talked of self-reliance, but proposed grand government solutions. What happened to the new kind of politician? The negativity and bitterness of his opening salvo negates that new type of politics.
When he talked of changing America, that's when I became scared. He talked of measuring progress, but ignored the fact that the only reason the Clinton years were prosperous were largely because of the Internet boom. That bubble burst at the end of Clinton's presidency, and while still under Clinton's budget, the nation plunged into recession. He does not mention the fact that recession was remarkably short-lived under President Bush, and to this day, even though we have had an economic slowdown, no such recession has recurred. The economy, despite the Democrats Chicken Little prophesies that we have endured for the last few years, and through the housing crisis, has shown remarkable resilience. Just this week, we have learned that economy grew twice as much in the last quarter as was expected. He talked of businesses creating jobs, but it is no secret that he regards business as a villain, and his tax policies will hurt businesses, small businesses in particular.
The speech then turned to his familiar platitudes of his "brother's keeper." He talked of getting specific on these issues. He talked of cutting taxes for 95% percent of working families, and ending our dependency on Middle eastern Oil. These are all subjects he has spoken of before, but he still offered no real specifics. Nothing new here. It sounded like he was reciting the Picken's plan for energy independence.
At that point, it started sounding pretty expensive. Investments, tax breaks, world class education, free health care, etc. These all sound good, but I suspect that income redistribution will be his method of paying for it. That, and a decrease in military spending, but once again that's just an educated assumption on my part. He talked of eliminating programs that no longer work, but who decides what works?
He did talk of individual responsibility and mutual responsibility, but before he could delve into any details on that, the speech turned into an attack on John McCain and the Iraq War. That's an issue where he will have no chance to best John McCain. He can bluster about being strong in foreign policy, but John McCain can dance circles around him in this. He called for withdrawing the troops, which has been his mantra.
He made a claim about a squandered American legacy due to Bush, but I believe that Bush has made our nation stronger. After all, Bush smashed Al Qaeda in Iraq (eventually, I must admit), and had a real foreign policy success in Libya. Before Bush, America was thought of as a paper tiger. I'm sure Al Qaeda probably doesn't believe that anymore. Obama talked of veterans benefits, even though his party was the party that cut the military so much under Clinton, that any shortfalls of funding were really the fault of the Democrats.
The most ironic part of the speech was his call to not question another's patriotism. It reminded me of the Simpson's episode where Homer forgot to pick up Bart from softball practice, and Homer tried to wash away the subject by saying "we can argue all day about who forgot to pick up who..." It is obvious that no one will question McCain's patriotism. It is Obama's patriotism that is in question, so for him to make the call not to question it is completely disingenuous.
The speech finally devolved into the lofty platitudes we are used to hearing from Obama. "All across America, something is stirring," he said... it's not even a mouse. It is Barack Obama and his is a cult of popularity that has little to do with anything beyond a charismatic speech.
