[Part 1]

They've said, 'Oh, Barack. He may get people excited, but he hasn't been in Washington long enough. We need to season and stew him, boil all the hope out of him.'

We've been warned that we had to pause for a reality-check. We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hopes. Let me tell you something: In the unlikely story that is America, there's never been anything false about hope.

For when we had faced down impossible odds, when we'd been told we're not ready, or shouldn't try or no we can't, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people:

Yes, we can.

- Sen. Barack Obama

My biggest fear is believing in a lie -- not just accepting it as a possibility, but diving in head first and investing all that I am in it. I worry about it in Taiwan -- regarding the emotional subjects that studying its history and its politics implies -- and I certainly worry about it in the US. I think most Americans do. If a politician tells you something that sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

I've been giving this a lot of thought since I saw what was perhaps the most moving speech in my, say, eight year political formation. I've spent hours searching for a transcript or a video of the speech, which I didn't bother taping myself in my certainty that it would be on youtube before I even got home.

Then, I remembered that political discourse is advanced through fleeting sound-bytes and catch-phrases, and the press gods, in their wisdom, had decided that Kerry's endorsement was the news of the day, not the rousing words of the man who's actually running for President of the United States. Even the College of Charleston, who's Bully Pulpit series had arranged the speech, only offers a 3 minute clip on youtube.

Alas, for those who couldn't see it, this is the best I can do, the first four minutes or so. Obama starts talking at about 3:45, but he talks about Kerry until about 5:50:

Unfortunately, it's not until about the last minute of the video that the speech even starts to crescendo. At that time, though, I was starting to get goosebumps. The optimist in me was finding something to find hope in: a presidential candidate with passion, who knows how to use his words to energize people and give them the faith to believe that a better future is within reach.

The pessimist was hesitant about the image of hundreds of people screaming "YES WE CAN!" at their dear leader. Wait! Oh God! I thought to myself. Damnit! Damnit! Damnit! I'm a fascist, aren't I?

But, eventually, Mr. Obama won me over, calming the pessimist in me -- which in turn, aggravated it even more, and so on.

Let's get into some specifics. One of the first things Obama mentioned was the economy. While I'm certainly one to cry fowl at the widening gap between rich and poor in the US, the amount of power corporations have in politics, and the evils of Wal-Mart, it still makes me apprehensive to hear a Democratic candidate talking about keeping jobs in the US. Not because I don't want to keep jobs at home, of course, but I don't want the government putting protectionist limits on companies moving abroad. I think, rather, it's the government's business to be making sure education in the twenty-first century adapts to a changing job market. We certainly don't want to bring the factories back to the US. We want to increase innovation and creation at home and make sure everyone has a stake in it.

Obama didn't mention what he would do to keep American jobs in America, so I went to barackobama.com and took a look at the issues. Interestingly enough, all three of the points under "Strengthen America’s Workforce" have to do with education -- rather than penalties for companies who move production abroad -- the latter of which will stand out to anyone familiar with globalization debates concerning education:

• Produce More Math and Science Graduates: Barack Obama believes we must strengthen math and science education to help develop a skilled workforce and promote innovation. Obama will work to increase our annual number of science and engineering graduates, encourage undergraduates studying math and sciences to pursue graduate studies, and work to increase the representation of minorities and women in the science and technology talent pipeline, tapping the diversity of America to meet the increasing demand for a skilled workforce.
  

This brings me to the most important -- to me, personally -- issue he brought up during his speech:

Again, he said:

"We're going to put in place a $4,000 a year tuition credit, for every student, every year. But, you know what? We are going to ask something in return: you're going to have to engage in some community service while you're in school.

I think this is an amazing idea. Give students the money they need to go to college, in return ask that they give something to their community. This is important for two reasons. The first is evident to anyone who has studied in the United States: it's expensive, and we need any help we can get.

The second, though, is far more profound if not only for the sheer want some of us have had for a politician who calls us to be a part of our country. I'm not talking about a president who tells a grieving nation to go shopping -- just leave the rest of this fight to them. As Ken Burns put it,

After 9/11, we weren’t asked to do anything. Franklin Roosevelt asked our country to sacrifice tremendously; now we are just asked to go shopping. When you go shopping its hard to remember the war you fought in 60 years ago.

What I'm talking about is a president who, when things go wrong, not only says it's up to us -- all of us -- to fix it but also gives us the hope and drive to go out there and get it done. We don't need a commander in the US; we need a leader.

This -- an ability to move people emotionally -- has been pooh-poohed by a lot of people as not as important as cold, hard Washington experience. I wonder what Washington has to offer him about the realities of life and politics in the United States that Illinois didn't. Why exactly is Washington experience the barometer for know-how? Sure, there's a game you have to play in D.C. -- a dance they do in our nation's capitol -- and nearly all Americans are tired of it. All this talk about his experience just seems to be a way to play down all of his experience outside of Washington as a student at some of the most prestigious universities in America, a community organizer, a lecturer of constitutional law, and an Illinois state senator.

At one point in the speech at the College of Charleston, he joked about his detractors, saying something along the lines of, "They say I haven't spent enough time in Washington. I haven't been stewed long enough to have all of the hope boiled out of me."

Yet, having all of the answers means little if you don't have the passion and appeal that gets people off their asses and gets them to realize that putting a "support the troops" magnet on your car or an American flag on your lapel doesn't actually mean anything if you're not doing something to better our situation and our country. The president isn't expected to know everything,* but he is expected to convey policy to the population and rally people to support it.


Well, there you have it. Obama, for the time being, has edged out Ron Paul. This is a serious compromise, considering Obama doesn't have the stiff backbone that Paul has. Obama did after all vote to reauthorize the (un)PATRIOT(ic) Act, even though he doesn't like it. I just have to decide by this week, as the first primaries approach here in SC.

The pessimist in me is still screaming "Fascist!"


* Which is what his cabinet is for. As a sidenote, I wish more people would focus on this, asking the presidential candidates who they would choose for their cabinet positions. We've seen how important Bush's advisors have been regarding the direction of his policies.