Sipping the Kool-Aid. Very Slowly.

Published March 4, 2008

By Elyse Stiner

“I’m asking you to believe. Not just in my ability to bring about real change in Washington… I’m asking you to believe in yours,” says Barack Obama.

Is it possible that he is finally our vessel for change and revolution? Obama preaches high goals and has beyond motivated voters to support his slogan, but can he deliver?

First and foremost let’s give him some credit…he has some great policies and even better, he believes in evolution! He wants to help the middle class, restore unity among Americans, and open discussions between America and other countries that Bush refused to talk to. His slogan is change: not only through him but through us, the people.

Catchy.

He’s charismatic and he makes people feel optimistic and inspired. So he makes people feel good, which is a nice change from the cynicism that has suffocated many of us during the past two terms. But can his positive attitude translate into a better United States?

Let’s start with Iraq. Unnecessary war done and done. So what is Obama’s plan? Get them out. Fair enough, everyone has been complaining about this war for awhile but realistically is it smart to just pull out immediately? Look what happened when we simply ran out of Afghanistan. For those of you who don’t know, our leaving Afghanistan = Taliban takes over. Of course it is not the same exact situation, but history does have a tendency to repeat itself. He pledges to work with Iraq on democracy and continue humanitarian efforts but to remove our troops. I am not saying his ideas will not work, but just some food for thought.

The second issue is experience. This is the one everyone’s talking about. Does he have the ability to actually be a president? Hillary Clinton says, “We’ve seen the tragic result of having a president who had neither the experience nor the wisdom to manage our foreign policy and safeguard our national security. We can’t let that happen again.” She is very obviously comparing him to Bush and what has happened with his lack of experience. The ratio between Clinton and Obama is huge, 35 years : 2 years. That’s a big difference. Obama says it’s more about judgment than it is experience and also boasts an impeccable track record. However, is it really possible to have good political judgment without having the experience to back it?

Don’t get me wrong, I think Obama is the best candidate and I think he has the ability to unite people across race, party, and region, just like he says he can. The problem in Vermont is, you don’t hear about his flaws or any other candidates for that matter. I think it is important to at least explore all the options. This is a presidential candidate we are talking about. People should not choose Obama simply because he espouses change, they must believe he has the ability to produce it too.

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