As I watched Obama deliver his acceptance address tonight, I sensed the growing optimism across the nation. And I'm not alone. Andrew Sullivan eloquently describes his speech:
It was a deeply substantive speech, full of policy detail, full of people other than the candidate, centered overwhelmingly on domestic economic anxiety. It was a liberal speech, more unabashedly, unashamedly liberal than any Democratic acceptance speech since the great era of American liberalism. But it made the case for that liberalism - in the context of the decline of the American dream, and the rise of cynicism and the collapse of cultural unity. His ability to portray that liberalism as a patriotic, unifying, ennobling tradition makes him the most lethal and remarkable Democratic figure since John F Kennedy.
And later, on Barack Obama:
Look: I'm biased at this point. I'm one of those people, deeply distressed at what has happened to America, deeply ashamed of my own misjudgments, who has shifted out of my ideological comfort zone because this man seems different to me, and this moment in history seems different to me. I'm not sure we have many more chances to get off the addiction to foreign oil, to prevent a calamitous terrorist attack, to restore constitutional balance in the hurricane of a terror war.
I've said it before - months and months ago. I should say it again tonight. This is a remarkable man at a vital moment. America would be crazy to throw this opportunity away. America must not throw this opportunity away.
Know hope.
Read his full post.
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From Sullivan, that means a lot. I think Barack brings unity not just to the Dems, but to the entire country. He's special and I don't think I'll see another like him in my lifetime. If he's not the next president, it's a loss for everyone.
Yes, Obama was being worshiped in his mile temple yesterday evening. At that place of worship, the great messiah fed the multitudes with his words.
It was a very good speech overall, but topical to this blog, did you notice that the first item mentioned in Obama's energy plan was clean coal , and solar and wind were mentioned last? Further, he said 'climate change' instead of 'global warming', and never made an explicit remark about the link between fossil fuels and global warming. Obama is surely America's best chance at a good president since before I was born, but climate wise, this speech is not what one would expect from someone who could put the US on the road to doing our part for stabilization at 450 ppm CO2. We're left hoping that an Obama victory will somehow result in Al Gore being in charge of global warming issues.
Great speech! As an independent voter and scientist (BSCE) I was very glad to hear Barack talk about our need to jointly attack the serious technological issues facing our nation and planet. I was especially glad to hear him point out how little (nothing?) McCain has done to promote alternative energy. 26 years in the Senate and McCain still avoids votes on alternative energy. If we could focus our intellectual might on solving these issues rather than developing better weapons we could be the world leader again. Otherwise, we'll be left in the dust, borrowing more money from China to buy oil from petrodictators.
So this is episode 4 -- "A New Hope".
Next week, "The Empire Strikes Back".
Jim,
Of course!
Where is the change? I head Obama talk about nuclear power and clean coal. As one of my friends signs his email, "Clean coal is a dirty lie."
For those who care about global warming, who are worried about what we are doing to the carbon cycle engine that drives life on this planet, this was a very disappointing evening.