The reason I'm voting for Obama is the strength of his story. The true leader has endured hardship, gone on a journey of some sorts, and come out the other side wiser and with victorious self knowledge. Bush II had shades of this story, but his was stunted due to the grasp of power he too easily received from his father. Hillary was a natural over-achiever, and achieved many things on her own. Her trials seem to have come while the First Lady, but she has not been very forthcoming about them, and she too received her power a bit too easily riding on her husband's coattails.
Obama rose up from the ashes of his former life. He has traveled down the wrong path, had a spiritual revelation of sorts, and become a community leader in Chicago. He did not attend an Ivy League school straight out of college paid for by his parents. He received a scholarship to Harvard while already a grown man in his late 20s, and once there became president of the student body by his own talent.
One of the more interesting dynamics of this is his admission of drug use. Bill Clinton smoked pot, then denied it, then tried to avoid accountability with the "I didn't inhale" garbage. There are many tales of Bush II's cocaine and alcohol abuse. He flat out denied the cocaine thing - too politically sensitive - and rightly used his alcohol abuse as part of his story of spiritual change. Obama is the first major presidential candidate that I know of to be forthcoming about his drug use right off the bat. In fact he lays it out in graphic detail right in his book. It will be interesting if the American people reward this candor, or penalize it, and thus condemning ourselves to more shadiness from our leaders in the future.
Whatcha think? Love, Dan
Hi Dan-
I think your points are valid and Obama would make the strongest candidate for the Democrats. I would love to see McCain get the nod from the Republicans. It would be a great race between the two bests candidates that speak there mind, not sound bites. Although I am not for the war in Iraq, McCain was the only candidate on both sides that was in favor of the surge which has been our best strategy so far to ending the conflict. I think he has a lot of political capital for taking this early stance. Also these two candidates lead the polls when asking voters who has the best chance of winning the general election. A lot of primary voters will be voting for the best candidate to win the general election (not the primary).
DAD
