Why Obama Should Be President

Let’s get right past that notion that someone deserves to be President.  Nobody deserves the presidency.  Hell, no one should even want the presidency.  It is one of the most stressful jobs on the face of the earth; it consumes all of your time, thoughts and energy, you’re lucky if you make it out alive or at least without a couple of assassination attempts, and quite frankly, there will always be some contingent of the population that hates you.  The Presidency of the United States is not a privilege.  It is a duty, a responsibility to over 300 million people and a historical legacy.

Let’s also get over this idea of experience.  The only people who have the “experience” to be president are the people who have already been president—and sometimes, not even them.  I think we can all safely say that after 7 years in office, George W. Bush is still no more qualified to be president than the guy who cleans the White House bathrooms.  In fact, he’s probably less qualified than the guy who cleans the Whit House bathrooms.  Maybe that guy should run for office.

What the President needs is a certain personality type, a temperament, an ability to speak to inspire the people, the ability to compromise and to stand firm, to look beyond political lines and make decisions that are best for the country, whether or not they are best for him. He needs to be educated but not so caught up with ethereal pursuits that he neglects the practical matters of the American people.  He needs to know what people care about.  He needs to take criticism and use it to better himself and his performance, not to bandy it about as a grudge.  He needs to select quality advisors with a wide array of viewpoints and backgrounds to help him make decisions that he himself is not qualified to make, for no man can be a master of all things.  He needs to understand and cherish the Constitution that he swears to uphold.  He needs to understand that he serves at the pleasure of the people, that this government should be one by the people, for the people and of the people.  And for God’s sake, let him have some common sense.

Of the candidates running for the Office of the President of the United States of America right now, September 2008, it is my honest opinion that Barack Obama is the best choice.

Truth be told, Obama is young and many say, inexperienced in Executive Office.  And God I hope so.  Let’s have someone who hasn’t yet sold their soul just to keep their congressional seat.  Let’s have someone who still holds on to youthful idealism because the cynical partisanship that permeates the capital has done nothing for this nation but drive it apart.

Yet people will still argue, what experience does Obama have?

Well, let’s start at the beginning.  He’s experienced what millions of other Americans have experienced: growing up with a single, working mother, the child of an interracial relationship, never really knowing his father.  Put himself through college, graduating from Columbia University, then working as a community organizer for three years with a church-based organization originally comprised of eight Catholic parishes in the south side of Chicago, where he helped set up a job training program, a college prep tutoring program and a tenants rights organization.  He went on to Harvard Law school, where he was selected as an editor, and then later the president of, the Harvard Law Review.  He taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School for 12 years and also joined a law firm that specialized in civil rights litigation and neighborhood economic development.

In 1996, he was elected to the Illinois Senate where he served until 2004, following his election to the US Senate.  He has served as a United States Senator for the past three years.  One of his sponsored legislative acts included the Coburn-Obama Transparency Act, which established www.USApending.gov, a web search engine on government spending.  He also sponsored the “Democratic Republic of the Congo Relief, Security and Democracy Promotion Act,” signed into law by President Bush in December, 2006.  He sponsored the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, signed into law in September 2007.   He also sponsored an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act adding safeguards for personality disorder military discharges.

He has sat on the Senate Committees for Foreign Relations, Environment and Public Works and Veterans’ Affairs, as well as Health, Labor and Pensions, Education and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.  He is the chairman of the subcommittee on European Affairs.

That’s quite a bit of experience, I’d say.  In fact, isn’t that the epitome of the American Dream?  A man who works his way up from the bottom, his hard work gives way to success, his success allows him to give back to the community?

But what about his political positions?

Well, he was an opponent of the Iraq War, and spoke out against it on numerous occasions.  He would like to eliminate all nuclear weapons, eventually.  He believes in direct presidential diplomacy with foreign enemies but is not against using force when necessary.  He has called for action against the genocide in Darfur, has divested his holdings of Sudan-related stock and urges divestment from companies doing business in Iran.  He opposes privatized Social Security.  He supports universal healthcare.  He proposes to reward teachers on a merit-based pay system.  He would eliminate taxes for seniors with incomes of less than $50k a year, close corporate tax loopholes, and proposed a cap and trade auction system to restrict carbon emissions.  He prefers transparency in government.  He wants to actively promote advancements in science and technology. He is pro-choice.

Of course, you didn’t need me to write all this.  You could have looked it up on Wikipedia or gone to BarackObama.com and found it out.  Or you could have let the news media tell you what they want you to know.  All too often we let ourselves be fed a narrative crafted in bits and pieces by people we don’t know, don’t really trust, but are willing to follow.  The ones who ask questions like, “Is Barack Obama a Muslim?” when mere hours before, they were reporting on him being  a member of a radical black Christian church.  They want you to know that Obama knows what arugula is, even if you don’t, and he prefers orange juice to coffee in the mornings.  Clearly, he’s nothing like you, even though some of you like orange juice in the morning and chances are, you’ve eaten arugula, or you make your living by growing arugula, or shockingly, you even know what arugula looks like.

So why do I think Barack Obama should be president?  Because he’s got that temperament a president needs—he’s not easily ruffled or stressed, he keeps calm under pressure, he can still crack a joke, even at himself.  When he speaks, people listen and are inspired—he has already drawn unprecedented numbers of young people out to get involve—he has even inspired some Republicans to cross party lines.  He is willing to compromise, but to be firm when it is required.  He’ll do what’s best and honest, even when it is not good for him.  He was up front about his drug use in high school, even when he didn’t need to be, and he admits when he is wrong.  He is educated.  He has studied and understands far better than most of us the Constitution that he will swear to protect.  He has quality advisors—and they have helped him build one of the most efficient, successful grassroots campaigns in history.  He is not searching for power, or a position he feels is owed to him.  He understands that the President answers to the people.  He encourages it.  It’s about time that someone did.

I, for one, would appreciate the change.