Democrat’s Convention – Coronating Obama
The Democrat’s quadrennial gathering in Denver is history. As anticipated, they formally nominated Barack Obama as their Presidential candidate in 2008 who accepted his party’s nomination before 80,000 people last Thursday night at Denver’s Invesco Field, also known as ‘Mile-High Stadium’. The setting was befitting a coronation of sorts and that should not have surprised anybody since nearly all Hollywood stars and filmmakers were in attendance and a regular football stadium setting was just not acceptable. Pomp and circumstances with music and fireworks had to be part of it.
When Barack Obama selected Delaware Senator Joe Biden to be his running mate, the pre-convention suspense was gone. Quite a few Hillary Clinton voters had privately hoped that he might have picked her as his prospective Vice-President and they showed their dissatisfaction during the convention. But in the end, the overall event was scripted well in advance and the folks in charge executed the plan flawlessly. Members of the media tried to look for and find drama, suspense and uncertainty as to what Bill Clinton might say during his Wednesday night speech but to their dismay, the former President played along with the script and did not bring any discord to the convention. As the saying goes, “all’s well that ends well” and the ending was Barack Obama’s well delivered speech at the stadium.
The memorable thing about all this is the fact that for the first time in American history, a major party has placed a black man at the top of the ticket. That is truly historical and we here at Common Sense Politics see it as a sign that America has come a long way during its 232-year history. Especially amazing is the fact that the Democrats placed with Barack Obama a relatively unknown man as their selection for the Presidency, a man with a comparably short resume and also without any significant accomplishments. One other point that we have to make is the reality that Barack Obama did not get most of his votes from African-Americans (even though they expectedly voted for him overwhelmingly) but from voters with different ethnic and racial backgrounds.
This is progress for America. We see it as a sign that racial prejudices in our country have, even if not totally eliminated, been significantly diminished and reduced in matters of great importance. We welcome this development wholeheartedly and we wish that the black community in America would be able to get more comfortable with this as well and overcome their fears and prejudices towards the white community. To be truthful, some racism towards others will remain in every population sector in the future but we should also recognize that great progress has been made and not see the nomination of Barack Obama as token symbolism but for what it is: The result of campaigning very hard on what he believes is needed for this country and receiving the plurality of votes in return.
Having said that, with nine weeks left until Election Day in early November we have to ask the question: Will he have to be elected President in order for us not to lose the progress we have made as a country in the area of racial reconciliation or will we suffer a setback in racial relations if he loses to John McCain? While we cannot answer this question, we most certainly hope not! We hope for the remainder of the general election from now on that it remains focused on true issues and not get drawn down into the gutter of class-warfare, prejudices and other demeaning trickery. As voters, we should be truthfully informed in unbiased ways as to who the candidates and their running mates are, their backgrounds, their activities in the past and their agendas and proposals for our future with specificity. Empty promises should be recognized as such through serious and diligent analyses and honest reporting to the voters. For example, we should expect more than just the promise of tax cuts to the middle class and universal health care without the details as to how this will be paid for.
Unfortunately, here as well as in other democratic countries, too many people are too uninformed as to whom to vote for and for what reason. How easy is it to say as a candidate “I have a plan to fight global warming and I will invest hundreds of billion of dollars to achieve this plan” without telling us who specifically will foot the bill. How many times has this happened during Presidential elections in the past and how many more times will it happen before we wise up and no longer accept these election year promises? All voters should ask themselves seriously why to give the nod to which ticket before they vote based on their own observations and preferences and not just on words and promises centering on hope and change and that the opponent is a bad person and cannot be trusted. That would be real progress in America and that would be change we could believe in! Only time will tell but we know one thing for sure, this election year is truly different than others in the past.
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