Tagged: politics

Obama Revisited

A friend who didn’t vote for Obama recently read Obama’s first book and asked me about what I thought of his recent changes to stem-cell policy.  Here’s most of my response:

Hi friend,

I have to commend you for a very Obama-like move for reading his book!   You were willing to listen to what the other side has to say, to objectively assess the strengths and weaknesses of his positions and then make an informed judgment that’s based on knowledge, not ideology.  That, really, is probably the biggest reason why I like Obama: I don’t agree with all his positions, but I absolutely DO agree with his approach to them: even-handed, thoughtful and then taking decisive action based on information, not merely overly-simplified principles or “the gut.”  (Note that I’m definitely not throwing out “principles”–we just have to make sure the principles are formulated correctly and  account for the world as it really is–a complex place.)
As you know, the Republicans–and especially George W–often have an unreasonably simplistic “faith” in certain principles:  free markets always good, taxes always bad;  companies good, government bad.  But life is much more complex than that and that’s why smart people go to elite institutions to learn how to think in a sophisticated way and then manage companies and governments well.  What Republicans/conservatives have to watch out for is assuming that “sophisticated thinking” = “moral relativism.”  In the case of Bill Clinton, he was a smart guy clearly lacking in ethical living and the conservatives effectively ripped him apart for that.  In fact, Monica Lewinsky directly led to the election of George W and his “principled” but simplistic and ineffective view of the world, which led to catastrophic governance.
So what I like about Obama is that he combines sophisticated, educated thinking–in which he considers many sides of an issue–in order to come to his conclusions.  He’s far from perfect but I believe he is a very moral, principled guy and an inspiring leader.  I find his deliberative, thoughtful approach very “American” in that he allows for the clash of ideas and doesn’t just champion a particular ideological agenda.
Specifically on the stem cell issue–just like on the abortion issue and no doubt on other issues that come up–I disagree on many of his specific policy prescriptions but wholeheartedly agree with the approach he models in coming to his decisions: carefully weighing the issues rather than engaging in the naked exercise of power.  His approach and leadership style are better for America and the world than the “take it or leave it” conservative approach that automatically assumed it had the moral highground and was filled with hubris and contempt for others. (For one thing, that approach is certainly “conservative” but hardly “biblical.”)    It’s hardly the case that conservatives are more moral when it comes to caring for widows and orphans or for protecting key values of a civilized society like the right to a fair trial.
In sum, I don’t agree with Obama’s policy positions on many hot-button social issues, but I wholeheartedly support his approach to understanding the other side’s perspective, and trying to find common ground.  I genuinely hope a thoughtful, strong conservative leader would rise up who doesn’t have a “Palinesque” style but is genuinely well-informed AND also leads based on principle.

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How about some better cars?

I’d love to buy a great U.S. car that would actually compete against German and Japanese models.  While they gorged themselves on the profit margins from inefficient, dangerous SUVs this past decade, the rest of the modern world was innovating and working on producing fuel-efficient engines that don’t require us to send billions to Middle East dictators.

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Historic

We watched the acceptance speeches tonight at Mark & Melissa's place tonight (sister and brother in law).  Barack is a classy, inspiring guy with real depth.

Agi and I marvelled at the contrast between how McCain's and Obama's supporters responded when hearing about their opponent.  It was petty, lame, and unpatriotic when the the Republicans booed Obama.  They were also booing democracy and showed they were poor losers.  I hope the Republicans get their act together–we need a credible opposition party.

One other thought: it was decidedly different when the First Family to be walked out and they were black.  It was just like the Huxtables from the Cosby Show.  I'm proud of Obama, his family and America.

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Rise of the Obamacons

I'd count myself an "Obamacon"–a Republican who likes Obama.  Here's an excerpt from the Economist about this:

"The rise of the Obamacons is more than a reaction against Mr Bush’s remodelling of the Republican Party and Mr McCain’s desperation: there were plenty of disillusioned Republicans in 2004 who did not warm to John Kerry. It is also a positive verdict on Mr Obama. For many conservatives, Mr Obama embodies qualities that their party has abandoned: pragmatism, competence and respect for the head rather than the heart. Mr Obama’s calm and collected response to the turmoil on Wall Street contrasted sharply with Mr McCain’s grandstanding.

Much of Mr Obama’s rhetoric is strikingly conservative, even Reaganesque. He preaches the virtues of personal responsibility and family values, and practises them too. He talks in uplifting terms about the promise of American life. His story also appeals to conservatives: it holds the possibility of freeing America from its racial demons, proving that the country is a race-blind meritocracy and, in the process, bankrupting a race-grievance industry that has produced the likes of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton."

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Electrified

Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the UK recently called the US Presidential race “electrifying.” That still qualifies as British understatement.  I’ve actually had a hard time sleeping a number of mornings because I’m thinking about the race–like today.  Here are a few thoughts:

I’m a political centrist and want the Democrats to win this time.  Most Republicans understand that when you have a company or a team that’s not performing, you fire them and clean house. Companies that are flailing and aren’t making any money should go out of business.  People need to be responsible for their actions and the track record of the Republicans the past eight years has been bad.

For example, the U.S. is and should continue to be a meritocracy.  But something is seriously out of whack when the richest 5% of the country owns more than the remaining 95%.  Even Ayn Rand might think this is getting out of hand. This income disparity between the rich and the less-well-off is the greatest it’s been since the Gilded Age. You do need the Masters of the Universe to arise and create google and run hedge funds.  But these guys don’t need tax cuts when we could, for example, pay more money to our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

As for the economy, it’s in large part being kept afloat by big corporations’ exports overseas.  Bush let the dollar devalue and this helps us sell products abroad.  But the biggest beneficiaries off this are big corporations rather than the rest of America.

On foreign affairs, this is where Bush has been at his worst (and exactly where I fear Palin would take us through a policy of ignorant muscle-flexing.)  Bush gambled and lost on Iraq and didn’t find any WMD.  If things had turned out better or OK he’d also be viewed as an OK President.  But since they did not, he will be rightly viewed as an arrogant and ignorant international bully.

Bush does deserve credit for not allowing another terrorist attack on US soil–this is obviously incredibly important.  But he deserves great blame for destroying America’s image, clout and “soft power” abroad.  We need to work with other nations to solve our own–and shared, worldwide–problems and we basically told everyone to shove off if they disagreed with us.

In this current election, Republicans continue to be big on attitude, posturing and fear-mongering and have been devoid of helpful ideas or actual public policy positions. Although I disagree on some of Obama’s policies, his approach to politics, leadership and actually thinking deep and hard about issues is almost the opposite of the shallow, ideology-driven, partisan knife-fighting that has characterized the Republicans.

It’s hard to tell who will win. For the sake of America–and for the reform of the Republican party itself so that it would no longer rely on polarizing and scaring the country through culture wars–I hope it will be Obama.

 

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Various

- I've probably been spending too much time absorbing all kinds of info and commentary on the US presidential race.  It's a very historical, exciting time though.  I am only more impressed with Obama, his message and ideas and the way he has conducted his campaign.  McCain, however, initially disappointed me with his lame attack ads featuring Britney and Paris.  And now Agi and I both are in shock and awe over his selection of the very nice and intelligent Sarah Palin–a person completely unqualified to take over in the event of McCain's death.  Putin or Ahmadinijad vs Palin?…

- I'm two-thirds of the way through Rob Roy and I'm liking it.  I hit some rough patches with it though when Scott introduced characters that speak a distinct Scottish vernacular which–although probably funny to English people 200 years ago–I don't understand at all.

- We've made very satisfying progress with our websites and the future is bright.

- We're heading to Transylvania this Thursday morning for four days with the bus tour that was postponed earlier.

- We return to Portland this September 17 and are looking forward to celebrating our 7th wedding anniversary probably in the Oregon wine country.

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Audacity

Yesterday I finished off Obama's book, the Audacity of Hope.  (By the way, "barack" means "peach" in Hungarian).  I am definitely impressed with a number of things about Obama and in particular his approach to politics.  It's true he's relatively young and has risen very fast, but I think he would make an excellent President.  Consider:

- The man is very intelligent:  In the vast majority of law schools, your work is graded anonymously so if you end up at the top of the class, you earned it solely based on the quality of your work (no kissing up in office hours, no breaks from affirmative action, etc).  Obama ended up at the top of his class at Harvard law school and then was elected out of all those brilliant people to be the head of the Law Review–the best of the best.  This is an amazing achievement, one I would consider close to winning a Nobel prize, based upon how exclusive this club is.

- His approach to politics: This is why he gets the support of a registered Republican like me.  After hearing a number of speeches and reading his book, Obama is onto something very important: he recognizes that the current political climate has been hijacked by extremists of the left and the right who absolutely hate each other and believe you'd have to be a moron to be a Republican or a Democrat.  Although Bush Jr. also portrayed himself as a "uniter and not a divider" he's actually practiced a brand of "us vs them" ideology-driven politics that has not been healthy for the US or the world.  To sum up briefly why I believe Obama's approach would be quite different is that he is not controlled by a simplistic ideology that focuses on achieving a few key things at all costs: (e.g. Tax Cuts are Good!  The woman's right to choose is the most important thing in the world!)  Of course, he does have specific policy proposals, and he is clearly a Democrat, but his approach is key: instead of focusing on the 20% of the issues that America is split exactly in half on, focus on the 80% of the issues that  would actually get bi-partisan support.

- Management skills & support:  Obama is a good manager and this is shown in how well he's handled his campaign.  It's remarkable how well he's done overtaking Clinton–and he did it methodically, with a steady hand, unlike the erratic way Clinton has managed her own.  Obama has used grassroots supporters in a very strategic way, somewhat like armies would be deployed across the country.  He's also pretty tech-savvy and his website is quite good.  Finally, it's also very impressive that most of his financial support has come from small donors–over a million people have contributed–instead of big lobbyists or special interests.

Allright, enough about politics and Obama.  Agi and I went to the Budapest city library last week and picked up some good books.  I've started in on a brief history of Russia and Agi is reading Jared Diamond's Guns Germs & Steel.

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I like Obama

This past Saturday, Ivy and I watched the back-to-back Republican and Democratic debates.  (A perfect way to spend my birthday!…)  It's an exciting time in US politics and overall we think that most of the candidates running on both sides are quality and very competent people.  My favorite continues to be Barack Obama because I simply think he has the talent, brains, charisma and integrity to lead America very well.  I also like the fact that he is black and has an Islamic middle name primarily for the symbolic value of this around the world.  The American president truly is a symbolic figure and I am already anticipating the significant ways he could make tangible diplomatic progress on a host of issues.

Here's a great quote from a CNN opinion piece I just read:  "But there is something else going on here. Obama is the first candidate
of his generation truly to be an agent of change who inspires,
motivates and ignites the passion in a large segment of Americans who
had ignored politics because it was unseemly and didn't move people to
action."

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Politics

A couple nights ago I watched the debate among the contenders for the Republican nomination.  I followed the whole thing very closely and realized again that I do like public policy and politics a lot (international political "science" major in college).  I started thinking to myself that if life were a lot longer than it is–or if I had the chance to pursue several careers–I could see myself wanting to mix it up in the political world in some way.  There are a lot of distasteful elements to politics (just like in the business world or anywhere really) but I think it was Churchill who summed up things well when he said that: a democracy is the worst form of government– except for all the others that have been tried…

By the way, my favorite candidates right now are Barack Obama and John McCain.  In the Republican debate I saw I found Romney and Giuliani to be inauthentic and it seemed like they were struggling to be all things to all conservatives.  McCain, on the other hand, was straightforward, principled and full of character.  I like Barack because I'm impressed by the way he approaches issues thoughtfully, is very charismatic in a professorial kind of way and he's young and energetic.

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