Thursday, February 01, 2007

Political Bio of the Week


This weeks bio will cover the mostly loved, but yet unknown Barack Obama. It's been about two weeks since I started to look into him. After two weeks I am convinced of two things...the first is that there is very little information out there about him and his true stances on topics. The second is that he really is loved, but unknown.

OBAMA, Barack, a Senator from Illinois; born in Honolulu, Hawaii, August 4, 1961; obtained early education in Jakarta, Indonesia, and Hawaii; continued education at Occidental College, Los Angeles, Calif., and Columbia University, New York City; studied law at Harvard University, where he became the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review, and received J.D. in 1992; lecturer on constitutional law, University of Chicago; member, Illinois State senate 1997-2004; elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in 2004 for term beginning January 3, 2005.

Here is the best site I have found for comparing candidates with your own political philosophy. I will be referencing this site for every candidate that we go through, which also fits in with the political spectrum we had on the site a few weeks ago.

This is a list of Obama's stance on certain big name topics:

For

Choice on Abortion
Affirmative Action (Wants to require companies to hire more minorities and woman)
More Funding for Education
Environment - (Alternative Fuel Sources)
Healthcare is a right, not a priviledge for the few
Fight against AIDS
Prescription Drug Importation
Civil Liberties
Immigration and amnesty of illegal aliens
Raising of Minimum Wage
Union and Worker Rights


Opposes

Tax Cuts (Corporations and the Rich)
Gay Marriage (Pro same sex unions and gay equality)
Death Penalty
Oil Drilling in the United States (Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico)
Guns - (Ban Semi-automatics and increase possession restrictions)
Wiretap provision of the Patriot Act (Supported the rest of the Act)
Iraq War (and Bush's increase in troop levels)
UN troops taking over for US troops in Iraq
Free Trade agreements (Unless they directly help the US)

3 comments:

Rich Uncle Moneybags said...

After listening to his US Presidential Candidacy speech, I can honestly say that I mostly liked what I heard.

My problem with him is that he stands for universal healthcare, illegal immigration amnesty and almost everything else a normal socialist/communist would stand for.

The other thing is that people give him blind support just because he is a great speaker. Hitler did the same thing and won the hearts and minds of the German people, but then used their call for change, a stance for the German people and their race against them to launch one of the greatest atrocities of all time.

Since Obama has not been in office very long, he can still be used and worked over by others. Because of this, I just don't know where he could go w/ the country. With great idealism comes great risk.

On the positive, he is absolutely a magnetic speaker who inspires people with hope, virtue, and responsibility similar to what John F. Kennedy did. Those are important things when being a leader and usually make the best leaders. So those things I like about him.

My only comment would be for Barack Obama is...you better stick to your word that you serve the people of the United States of America. If you do that, with that kind of charisma, this country really can get turned around and head in the right direction.

If you slip, and you start supporting special interest groups, lobbyists, financial supporters, or political backers, you will become the one thing you say you are against and will ruin this country and what it stands for. If you win the election, you have won it by this stance alone and this stance will lead you and the United States to great heights.

Jason said...

It seems like Obama has a really good shot at being elected. Personally, I don’t think being a great speaker can outweigh socialism.

Rich Uncle Moneybags said...

Never. But there is one thing that I was thinking about, if he is so green in government and fully believes that following what the people need and want is his first priority, it might not be a bad thing.



There’s a couple things I fear. One is two classes, poor and rich. When that happens, it hits the fan and you have Venezuela, Cuba, Africa, etc. If Obama pumps enough “socialist” money back into the middle class and brings us all up, we’d be ok. We’d actually be further away from socialism/communism than if we go on this current pace of separating the rich and the poor. Added to that, I fear bringing the poor up to the “middle class” level. Then you’re in the same situation except that the two classes are rich and middle. Same situation would occur and we’d be heading toward socialism/communism. It’s a fine line and I hate to say it, but it’s almost beneficial to have poor people. I think I’m going to hell for that comment, but it’s good for economics and capitalism at least.



The other thing I worry about is this constant Democrat/Republican switch off and the two sides completely different outlook on the country and our role in the world. You have Democrats that are moving us toward socialism, you have Republicans moving us toward totalitarianism. You put the two together and we’re in the worst possible scenario any country’s people can be in. We lose all of our freedoms and get all of our pay from the gov’t. Free thinking, acting, and liberty is all gone in that scenario.



Those are the two things I worry about most.