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Published in The New York Post on August 26, 2008.
DENVER
‘I love this country”: Those are the magic words that Michelle Obama said at the Democratic National Convention last night.
They’re the words we’ve wanted to hear from her ever since we saw her say that she was proud of her country “for the first time in my adult life” now that her husband was winning primaries en route to the White House.
Did she buy into the American dream? Was she part of our national aspiration - or part of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s twisted view of us? Those were the questions we wanted answered. Last night, she answered - loud and clear.
We’ve watched the scripted familial intimacies Hillary Clinton always shares from the podium and wondered if they had been focus grouped. We’ve watched Theresa Heinz Kerry’s vaulting ambition at the 2004 Democratic convention and wondered if she was really human.
But this year we saw an eloquent, sincere woman speaking of her dreams and aspirations. She gave a speech that sounded real with anecdotes that seemed genuine.
Michelle Obama last night became a political plus, not a problem.
We worried that Barack was an elitist. But her speech made it clear that she wasn’t born as part of the elite and that he wasn’t either. Her genuine working-class stories transcended race and rang true with Americans.
By bringing her husband down to earth, Michelle reassured us. But when she began reeling off the stories, we couldn’t help wondering if it wasn’t too much. OK, we found ourselves saying, You didn’t grow up as elitists. You can reach back for the stories and the memories. But what about now? What about the future? You started off poor, but have you gone Ivy League on us?
Listening to her, we couldn’t help feeling that we’ve heard it all before from Barack Obama himself. Couldn’t help wondering if there was more than just the rhetoric and the emotion, no matter how sincerely and obviously felt.
Michelle, essentially, gave Barack’s standard speech for him. Now it’s up to Barack to put meat on the skeleton and flesh out his agenda - to go beyond her words and emotions and give us programs, concrete ideas and commitments. The generalities have worked before but, to quote Sen. Obama, “not this time.”
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Comments
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I for one am completely tired of this focus on the irrelevant. I don’t care who Michelle Obama is or what she thinks of Barack. Did anyone think she would tell us that his is a schmuck.I don’t care what Ted Kennedy thinks, I already know he wants things we cant afford right now, and I am beginning not to care what Barack Obama thinks. Finally with pieces like this I don’t care what Dick Morris thinks.
What I do care about is what we are going to do about the deteriorating state of our Nation. And for further emphasis I don’t care about when the decay began or who started it. I want to know who is best suited to get us back on track and specifically how they will do accomplish this goal.
At the core of all, yes ALL, of our problems is our reliance on oil based energy. Fix this problem and we will have jobs, we will be able to afford better health care for all and we will be able to afford to properly educate the next generation. We will be able to develop a coherent foreign policy based our our principles not on our need to protect our energy supply. I want to know who gets this.
Two things are obvious to me and I know many others:
1- It is not in our best interest to continue to spend in excess of $700 billion per year to purchase foreign oil. And it doesn’t matter if it comes from Canada or Mexico even though they are far better suppliers than our terrorist sponsoring enemies. That money would be far better spent buying domestic energy and creating jobs for our own citizens.
2- We cannot continue to use oil based fuel for transportation. It is running out and we do not have enough domestic supply no matter where we drill.
A big part of the answer is in converting our transportation to electricity and making much greater use of natural gas as an interim fossil fuel.
This means getting on with nuclear, wind, solar, geothermal, hydro, tidal etc sources of electricity. It means investing in modern transmission and distribution systems. Aside from GM and a few small startup we are being left in the dust on electric cars. Nissan has breakthroughs in Li-Ion batteries for its electric car in 2010 and a called Better Place is advancing a new model for battery powered electric cars Israel and Denmark are on board. Hell, even Iceland is getting off oil for transportation. Where are we?
To see the future Google the announcement by Norway’s Renewable Energy Corp and their decision to build a $1.2b polysilicon factory in Quebec, Canaada. They chose Quebec because of the stable availability of reasonably priced hydro electic power.
Picken’s initiative is certainly encouraging.
I am going to vote for whoever has the strongest program to get us off oil based fuels. At the moment, McCain has a big lead over Obama on this issue. He alone seems to understand we cannot take ANY option off the table. Drilling offshore and in the north provides relief and a safety valve. Nuclear will be an important component and we have to provide the money to solve the waste issue.
Solve this one problem and we solve the other biggies. Namely environmental degradation and jobs. We get back on a growth path and begin to balance our budget and get debt under control. Then we have money for health care, education and other things we care about.
Oddly no one has bothered to recognize that Michelle’s darling speech, with its folksey “I am just a poor white ..er black woman just like the the rest of you ..er white folk and i will not mention my Ivy league credentials and don’t you say anything about my doctoral thesis” begs the question…who and what is Barack Obama and what and who is Michelle since she was named by Barack as his 1st “go to” advisor at Saddleback. Is she more experienced than Barack? While love is a beautiful thing what is she capable of advising him about? Where does he need her advise…why would he need HER advise? Too many mysteries..too much intrigue…During her speech I felt that all too familiar feeling that I just getting ready to buy a used Ugo. Will no one mention that both Barack and Michelle are products of government sponsored programs?
I have only one question for Ms. Michelle… If you’re married to the President, can you still keep your day job?
T. Boone has some great ideas, but don’t think for one minute that he is touting wind as the “great savior” to our energy troubles because he’s a nice guy or overly concerned about our energy independence or dependence. Pickens has one goal and one goal only, TO MAKE MONEY!
In April of this year he was quoted by The Guardian, “Don’t get the idea that I’ve turned green,” Pickens tells the Guardian in the Dallas offices of his new venture Mesa Power. “My business is making money, and I think this is going to make a lot of money.”
Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with making money, and lots of it. The problem I have is he portrays himself in his TV spots as a concerned citizen, however, by his own volition, his primary objective is to corner the wind market.
If this was the real Michelle Obama, then why did they have to keep her out of sight for the last two months?
How do we know if this is the genuine Michelle Obama, or if the original angry and bitter Michelle is the genuine person? When in doubt, trust the unscripted version …
[…] and commitments. The generalities have worked before but, to quote Sen. Obama, “not this time.” The Source __________________ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ How May I Help You? PM me through this link if clicking […]
I agree………the era of political lip-widsom is coming to an end. It is going to be time for McCain or Obama to show America where the “beef” is…….and I’m not from Missouri…..but rather New York.