Barack Obama: A “Made Man”

I still don’t know who I’m going to vote for in November.  At one time I fully supported Obama.  I’m not so sure I do anymore.  I watched the CNN special Barack Obama Revealed last night and came away with even less certainty about Barack than felt before.  The most glaring message I got out of the whole show was how Barack is essentially a “made man” by his friends in the Illinois state senate, specifically his endorsement by Senate President Emil Jones.  It seems to me that Barack needed to learn how to grease his elbows and these guys taught him how to do it.  One good speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2003  and BANG – a Presidential nominee is born.  One who had 129 “Present” votes during his time in the Illinois Senate.  And no track record to speak of during one term in the US Senate.

I get the impression that a whole lot of “Obamamania” is based upon the fact that many, many people are turned off by the Republican party thanks to good ‘ol Dubya and Cheney.  They’re ready to take anybody that represents a change from the status quo.  But I haven’t been convinced that McCain is a carbon copy of Bush.  In the past and today McCain appears to be a Republican I can settle for.  He’s a moderate.  Now if he goes out and gets himself a hyper-religeous, bible beating, Neocon for a running mate to satisfy the “base” of the Republican party then I’ll have to settle for the lesser of two evils and go with Obama.  I will not sway in my position that nothing mixes worse than religeon and politics, not even oil and water.

There is one aspect of McCain winning the Presidency that I’ve not heard a lot of talk about.  That is the fact that if he wins and the Democrats pick up two or three more seats in Congress we can expect at least four more years of deadlocked legislation.  Nothing will be passed because bills will be shot own and vetoed at a record pace.  I’m relatively conviced this is not what we need right now.  I would like to see a working Congress as opposed to one that is permanently on vacation.