On the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream Speech" on a stage set up like a Greek amphitheatre, I expected something special out of Sen. Barack Obama's acceptance speech. As one of the nearly 40 million to watch his speech given at the Democratic National Convention, my main goal was to not get drawn into his appealing idealistic talk. This never ended up being a problem.
Obama's campaign moves have been under scrutiny and more recently a subject of fun for the McCain campaign. Of course, Obama had to defend himself from recent attacks, but in doing so he jumped into the same partisan politics he speaks so lowly about. Associating McCain with President Bush was a smart tactic, but Obama took it a little too far. He claimed McCain voted with Bush 90 percent of the time and said the American people should not take "a 10 percent chance on change." With this comment Obama played on the "failures" of the Bush administration, and soon enough, he had the whole football stadium chanting, "Eight it enough! Eight is enough!"
Obama dealt McCain some of the blame for our country's oil addiction for the past 30 years and for the country's foreign policy in Iraq. He even accused McCain for not following bin Laden to the "cave where he lives" and for "his stubborn refusal to end a misguided war." In fact, McCain was one of the few in favor of the surge long before it was implemented, which is one of the main reasons why we will be able to bring this war to a close. Oh, and I am sure if Obama could point out the cave bin Laden is lurking in, McCain would be there.
After personally attacking McCain for a while, Obama moved on to the more cliche, populist arguments any Democrat makes in a speech of this nature, although you could say he brought in a more socialist blend. He isolated conservatives by attacking the "on your own" mentality that has made this country tick for years. And of course, he speaks to his "nation of whiners" who are drowning in a lonely world where they cannot get any support from the harsh government who cares only for wealth and corporations.
Before seeping into the idealistic jargon, Obama made a few ridiculous promises, like eliminating dependence upon oil from the Middle East in 10 years. Then, he ended the small talk and introduced his voice of "change," where the heavens open up and the sun starts to shine. "The times are too serious, the stakes are too high for this same partisan playbook," which is a little hypocritical for him to say since he uses that same playbook. Obama spoke of uniting in a "common effort" in which the people of America act with the "intellectual and moral strength," J.F.K. spoke of.
In my opinion, the speech was hypocritical and frightening, but I do admire the Democratic nominee for his seriousness and his ability to stick to his politics from the primaries, instead of shifting to the center like most candidates. Obama's speaking skills never cease to amaze me, although after watching this, I do not feel like there is much underneath it all.
