Why Barack Obama? My Concerns...
Why Barack Obama? I’ve been recently asking myself why he has so many supporters after looking at his beliefs, his associations, and the comments and claims that he has recently made.
I’ll address the issue of Reverend Wright and his association with Barack Obama first. Reverend Wright has been in the news recently because of his comments regarding America and race. During a sermon, he said that America was run by rich white Americans that didn’t have the black people in mind, that white people gave blacks AIDS, and that we shouldn’t be shouting ‘God Bless America’ but rather “God **** America!” I understand that you shouldn’t judge somebody solely because they know somebody who is radical in their beliefs, which Reverend Wright is. However Barack Obama has called Wright his ‘spiritual mentor’. Now, a mentor is somebody who teaches you and guides you. This makes me ask the question "What is Reverend Wright teaching Barack Obama?" Is Wright teaching Barack Obama that the white man is oppressing the African American community and that white people gave blacks AIDS on purpose? If this is the influence that Wright has had on Obama, then I do not want him to be president.
Let’s say that Wright never mentored or talked politics with Obama (although I strongly doubt it) and talked strictly religion. His religions teachings are that of the Black Liberation Theology, which teaches is that the African American community should reject and kill ANY God that doesn’t teach that the Black Man is superior. All men are created equal; Barack Obama has quoted this line many times, and it is indeed true. But what Reverend Wright teaches is not this, and Barack Obama has listened to this for 20 years. Reverend Wright is an extremist and racist against whites. I do not want my president to have been taught by somebody like Wright, and I certainly don’t want my president to have any prejudice or racism against a particular group.
There are also some recent events that have made me question Barack Obama’s patriotism and policies. I’ll start with the allegations regarding him not wearing a flag pin. Now I am ok with this, and his response is that he shows his patriotism through his actions, not through a flag pin. I agree with this and do not judge him for it. However, I do have a problem with the fact that he will not salute the flag, as many videos on Youtube and other websites have shown. I find this disrespectful to the flag as well as the American public because he is trying to become president of the United States and lead us, and yet won’t salute our flag. His wife has also said that this is the first time in her adult life that she is proud to be an American. So she is only proud of America because her husband has a chance to be President? I do not want an un-patriotic First Lady or President in the White House, but that’s just me.
As far as Barack Obama’s policies are, there is not much to say. I know that he wants to give drivers licenses to illegal immigrants, which I am strongly opposed to because illegal immigrants should not be given any rights regarding driving, owning property, or voting because they are currently here illegally and breaking our laws. And he wants Socialized Health Care. I do want everybody to have health care and it is sad that people are dying because of a lack of health care. However, Socialized Health Care does not work in Canada or England, and instead of helping lower income families afford health care it will cause nobody to have decent health care and hurt everybody. It will cause the health care system to become inefficient and rendered totally useless due to long waits for an appointment and slow care. Universal health care would also decrease the competition in the Medical Industry because there would be no incentives for doctors to work harder because they are all paid by the government; which would result in lower-skilled doctors in our hospital. But I digress. Other then those two things, I do not know what he stands for, and I think that I am in the majority on this issue. He claims that he wants ‘Change’, but that’s all I’ve heard about him and he needs to allow his policies to be heard by the public. I do not think the majority of America knows what he stands for, and I don’t want to vote for a president who just talks about ‘Change’ when I don’t know what this change is. Barack Obama does not take a stance on anything and nobody knows what he stand for.
Because nobody knows what Barack Obama stands for, one of the most influential people in his life (Reverend Wright, his mentor) is a radical racist, he is inexperienced, and his beliefs show some similarities to Marxism, Barack Obama should not be president of the United States. Please enlighten me to any errors of thinking or facts that I may have presented, as so I can either agree or provide a counter-argument.
Ok, I would like to know what your sources are for comments such as: "Socialized Health Care does not work in Canada or England", "It will cause the health care system to become inefficient and rendered totally useless due to long waits for an appointment and slow care", "no incentives for doctors to work harder because they are all paid by the government; which would result in lower-skilled doctors in our hospital".
I'll have you know, as it stands now, the Health Care system is a mess, even bigger than most people think. Doctor's are told, by health care providers, to limit procedures conducted on their patients, even if the doctor's feel the procedure should be done for the welfare of the patient. I don't get this information from any movies, my father is a doctor, he fills me in on some of the horror stories regarding the health insurance companies.
And so you don't think he is partisan, like I may be sometimes, my dad is a Reagan republican, and remains a conservative, but he believes in Universal Health care.
You are right, drug companies and health insurance companies are trying to make profits by sacrificing the care of their consumers. And universal health care will be good for basic health care needs, however specilized medicial health care would be backed up by weeks, as it is currently Canada. A progam needs to be implimented that allowes for private health care for specilized medical needs and socialized health care for basic health care needs.
But what is your responce to the rest of my post regarding Barack Obama, along with his policies and associations with Reverand Wright?
Sorry to hit you on this same point, but I too would like to know where these claim universal health care come from.
Fourty years of well documented history show that outright socialist health care has worked well in Cuba, relative to their wealth of course. I know of American doctors who sneak into Cuba to see how they do it.
The only person I know of who has actually studied foreign universal health care is Michael Moore and what he found seemed like it worked pretty well. Now I'm not claiming that he is or isn't a reliable source, but at least he supports his claims somehow.
I've also heard that Canadians supposedly come to America for health care cause their system is so broken. I can tell you this from experience living in Maine, a state sharing hundreds of miles of boarder with Canada, and in Portland, our largest city and health care center, and from working it the state's largest and most highly ranked hospitals: Canadians are driving 300 plus miles to go to Old Orchard Beach on vacation, but they're not coming to use our hospitals.
I would like to see actual evidence in support of these claims against universal health care. That goes for everyone who brings up this point. If there isn't any maybe you should all consider not speaking up against universal health care for no reason. Ignorant or dishonest speech may be constitutional, but that doesn't make it right, especially if its contributing to hurting people.
And if you want your points on Barack Obama to get considered, maybe you shouldn't fluff them up with unsubstantiated claims.
A lot of attention was placed on Rev. Wright because they couldn't find anything else on Barack Obama. From what I have learned from people at Trinty United Church, Barack Obama was not there during the time Rev. Wright said those outrageous things. Barack Obama liked the church ministries which helped so many people in the community. I do believe Barack heard things that he didn't agree with but they never rose to the outrageous things we all heard in the snippets that were played for 6 weeks. I am sure we all heard things at church that we didn't agree with but as long as it wasn't outrageous then we feel no need to leave. You take people like Sean Hannity that did all his shows for 6 weeks on the Rev. Wright and saying that Barack should have left the church. He is a catholic but he didn't leave his church when the scandal broke out of the pedophile priests who molested several hundred children. He should be the last to try and cast a stone. In my opinion staying with a church who had all those pedophile priests molesting children is worse than a church who has a pastor who say outrageous things. I want to apologize to all catholics for my comments but that is directed toward Sean Hannity only because he bashed Barack Obama on that issue. He also talks about him knowing someone who consider as terrorist but he has ties to a nazi. Sean Hannity is such a hypocrite and he should keep his mouth close and never say anything about any one.
Hillary Clinton also had church problems and many other issues that was not brought up in this democratic primary election because Barack don't believe in trying to destroy your opponent. There are things that the American People are not aware of but if they knew about it then they wouldn't vote for her. Hillary was the one who sent those snippets to Fox News on Rev. Wright. She believes in do any say anything to win. Some people say that Barack Obama is not fit to be President but I don't understand why they feel Hillary is fit to be President. When she worked at the White House during watergate she was fired for lying and unethical behavior. I guess people prefer someone who is immoral, dishonest an unethical to be their president but I am just not one of them. I would never want Hillary to be president because there is nothing presidential about her.
Eric655, if you are smart than you should be concerned about Hillary Clinton unless you want another lying and unethical president like Bush.
My understanding of Barack Obama is limited at best, as there is very little known about him. Most of what I do know is negative and his message seems to be made up of buzz words and phrases that are lacking in substance. He repeats them over and over along with an emotional pitch or promise of change. It's kind of scary that Obama has made it this far on a platform of nothingness. Hopefully he is the Democratic nominee .... McCain will make quick work of him.
You know Canada and England are not the only way to do health care. Australia has government provided medical insurance for low incomes and for higher incomes for a tax levy. Private insurance is still popular because it provides better coverage. It is best to not copy Canada's system, they have far more government involvement that the minimum necessary to ensure quality health care for all.
I categorically disagree.
You take issue with him not wearing a flag pin? Have you seen Mark's post on McCain who hasn't worn a flag pin at any event in the past 6 months? Do you now question his patriotism?
Hagee (the Holocaust was God's will) endorsed McCain. Robertson (9/11 was punishment from God) endorsed Romney. Can you no longer associate with them as well?
As far as your Marxism comments, I haven't faintest clue what you're talking about.
You don't know what Obama stands for? How about you just like, I dunno, go to his website and read exactly 'what' he stands for, instead of roboting anonymous emails you received in your junk mail folder?
noahstephenson -- I hope you are not confuse Marxism theory with the real Democratic socialism, if Obama wants to do something for the poor people, by taxing the rich, socialize healthcare, government runs society etc... What do you think that mean? Don't be afraid to be socialism, you might not know it now, but one day you will. Oh, by the way, I’m for Obama. Even though he does not seem like socialist but at least he’s getting close to that. What do you think he means that “He reiterated his willingness to talk to Chávez, and Cuba? Let’s get our hope up for Socialism!
Make no mistake about it Obama is a great orator. He has taken the despicable biggoted and hate-filled words of his pastor, and the bawdy and raucous behavior of fellow congregants that escalates it; and excuses the former then explains away the latter. He rejects the words, but not the man until it became politically expedient to do so, and then explains the church behavior as, "...the screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear". Brilliant rhetoric! Great oratory, however, does not equate to great leadership. Throughout history there have been too many skilled orators that led their followers in the wrong direction, for example, Reverand Wright or William Ayers. The point is that brilliant rhetoric often contradicts reality and the facts; and as the rhetoric of Wright defines who he is, so does Barack's oratory define him. For example, the other night's victory speech after praising McCain's service (high road) to his country, Obama slams him with a fallacy like, "while I praise him, he fails to acknowledge my accomplishments". Again great rhetoric, but it’s without reality or substance. Which of his "groundbreaking accomplishments" did he want to contrast with the accomplishments of McCain; a man whose humility is the antithesis to Obama self-pride. His self-pride is so reminiscent of the empty Jackson affirmation, "I am somebody". We're all somebody; it's the content of our character that defines the difference between us. Was it Obama's great self-sacrifice in passing on high paying private sector jobs he wanted to compare with McCain denying a pass to freedom from further torture based on a principle called, first in - first out? Or was it his, "publicly taking an AIDS test as an example of his responsibility" he wanted to compare with McCain's acts of responsibility coupled with courage to run counter to his party on many, many issues; because it was the right thing to do for the country - not his party or own political ambition. Senator Obama would do himself a favor if he would review his "groundbreaking accomplishments" listed in his campaign pamphlet before he again tries to compare his accomplishments with those of another somebody; somebody whose personal attributes are above reproach and begets the pride of others; and not the pride of a self-reflecting oratory. It is truly about accomplishments, concrete and not abstract, and certainly not personal affirmations. His rhetoric portrays self-attributes of honesty, courage, and of doing the right thing, while Obama's actions demonstrate dishonesty, cowardice, and doing the what’s politically convenient. Senator Obama has already made history as the first African American to be nominated to a National Party, unfortunately he lacks the experience, credentials and bonafides of most of the candidates against whom he ran. By November, the expectation is that many more folks will realize that this man has integrity issues. You can’t know what a man believes, when he looks you straight in the eye and tells you he doesn’t share the ideologies of the folks he is "friendly with", i.e. Willaim Ayers, Reverend Wright, Father Pfleger, and Minister Farrakhan; but when he tells you that he’s never heard that sort of stuff before before seeing it on the TV, well he has likely got some conflicts with the "truth". We'll see.
It is time for something other than wheeling out old John McCain. Obama will provide the leadership this country needs. Who cares who is pastor is. Grow up. By the way for Obama supporters I found this site: www.barackobamat-shirts.com "Yes We Can" & "Team Obama" baseball jerseys for about $14 Lets get Obama elected!
Yawn. Obama has repeatedly repudiated Wright, his statements, and his church. Obama's experience? How about McCain's? He broke the Navy's airplane, and did nothing in the Senate except pass a campaign finance law which he's now violating, and an immigration bill which was so doomed that even he had to repudiate it, and the crooked deals and lobbyists and earmarks....
