Considering Barack

A few weeks back, we spent an evening going through the three major candidates websites (Hillary, Barack, and McCain). Having been a lifelong conservative, this was a first-time experience of trying to come to the table with an open mind and listening to what the candidates say and represent. Overall, I felt like I learned little new about Hillary. We were unimpressed by her site and have consistently been unimpressed with her inability to speak in a way that communicates authenticity. McCain's site was about what I'd expect, minus addressing foreign policy, which was quite disturbing for me. Still, McCain opposes abortion outright and is the only candidate that would potentially appoint supreme court justices that would repeal Roe v. Wade and the more than 1 mil. yearly abortions that we consider a modern holocaust. But perhaps equally important in my mind is how a candidate views America's role in the world and what his foreign policy will mean for the world (not just for the U.S.). I struggle to think that McCain will be a solid choice here. When one goes to his website, they can click on a lengthy page where McCain unpacks his stance on "the issues." These are domestic concerns, with the notable exception being Iraq. He mentions border control, as well. But nowhere does he mention anything else on foreign policy. He mentions nothing about poverty or about programs to help the poor. I appreciate his stance on appointing judges that strictly interpret, but I find little else inspiring on his issues page.

I never would have considered Obama six months ago, but I was deeply impressed by his speech regarding race last week. The issue would have buried any of the other three candidates, I am convinced, but Obama seems to have a mixture of tact, wisdom, and boldness in the way that he addresses both whites and African-Americans on the issue. I found myself wanting to vote for him. He seems to understand better than anyone else how America has hurt people. Hillary would like to identify herself in the same way, but she really can't because it doesn't seem she has any ability to connect spontaneously to an audience emotively. America's hurt African-Americans, Native Americans, and nations around the world. Listening to Bush, you'd think America made hardly any mistakes. As Americans, we have contributed significantly to the terrorist situations that we fear the most. Military presence around the world is not going to solve these problems. We placed the Shah in Iran, only to see him overthrown and a country embittered against us because we propped up a pro-American dictator that kept the country from moving toward nationalizing the oil industry. Mistake America. We supported Sadam against Iran and supplied him with weapons (not WMDs, but still weapons and aid). Further mistake America. We helped free Afghanistan through military aid but provided no aid for schools. While we provide a tremendous amount of aid, our aid per unit GDP is among the lowest amount of any developed country. We leverage our power to block important buys for other developing nations (sorry China, Unocal is not for sale, go to Sudan and get your oil there) that contribute to atrocities. Some will say that I'm giving an overly simplistic view of the world and that the lesser of two evils often has to be chosen. Granted, there are those situations. But the U.S. has almost categorically acted in its own material and fiscal interest in the past, no matter if meant upholding dictators or leveraging its strength to make unfair trade stipulations (i.e. China in the 19th century). I think that the U.S. and many parts of the world have particularly suffered under a president that has not had a nuanced approach to global politics. On many points, I doubt that I differ in perspective or convictions from our president, but I don't think that a president can be effective with so little tact, with so little ability to work with the media, with so little ability to build consensus and to move people and nations into common action. Some conservatives have demonized the media for its portrayal of Bush, but one of the president's key jobs is to understand how to work the media. I'm not saying that he should be a media darling of the ultra-left, which will never happen, but he should have enough presence to hold his own.
I haven't made up my mind but will look forward to the debates in October. I deeply hope that Obama wins the democratic nominee, otherwise my choice will be much simplified. Obama's terrible voting history on abortion makes it very difficult to consider him, but I am listening. I'm also hoping that McCain will come out with a compelling vision for what he would do in the realm of foreign policy and how the U.S. might live up to its billing as a Christian country. If 78% of Americans call themselves Christians, it'd be nice if our foreign policy reflected Christian values a bit more.