He really does seem like a guy that you could get along with. He recalls a story of when a campaign opponent sent a stalker named Justin to videotape his every move and conversation, including cell phone conversations with his family and when he went into the bathroom. Obama asked him his name and if he was supposed to be always within 5 feet of the candidate. The paid stalker just handed over his phone to Obama and they got nowhere. Finally Obama walked into a press conference about to start and said, “Hey everybody. This is Justin. He’s stalking me.” Then the voyeur was voyeured, staring like “a prisoner of war” at all of the cameras now pointed at him.
Another story that he tells is of how he was going to try to re-enjoy the bachelor life in his D.C. apartment while his family stayed in Illinois. He admitted that he had become so domesticated that he had forgotten to buy a shower curtain. His first morning on Capitol Hill he was showering huddled in a corner hoping to not flood his bathroom.
He seems like a decent enough guy because he wants to see every side to a decision, but that may be his downfall. Within a page of where he describes how the pragmatism and success of the Union has been based on no absolutes, he also says this:
Knowing this, I can’t summarily dismiss those possessed of similar certainty today – the antiabortion activist who pickets my townhall meeting, or the animal rights activist who raids a laboratory – no matter how deeply I disagree with their views, I am robbed even of the certainty of uncertainty – for sometimes absolute truths may well be absolute.
He keeps coming back to the topic of abortion throughout the book, which sadly usually shuts down the conversation for most listeners. I think it’s great to see both sides, but sometimes Obama sounds like my students (“Well, both sides are good! Let’s do both!”) or like me trying to decide on Wii Degree or Mario Strikers. Sometimes decisions do have to get made. Obama makes it clear that he is very in-tune with peoples’ freedom. While he lauds the government for infringing the personal rights of slaveholders or invading a company with environmental regulations, he does not believe a woman’s choice should be infringed. I support both the removal of slavery and requiring companies to not toxify my water, but I’m quite sure that there were some slaveholders that didn’t view slaves as humans and that there are some corporations that think human desires outweigh the Earth. When do we choose to infringe and when do we hold back? Decisions do get made.
But the broader issue here is: Do women have the right to make these profoundly difficult decisions? And I trust them to do it. There is a broader issue: Can we move past some of the debates around which we disagree and can we start talking about the things we do agree on? Reducing teen pregnancy; making it less likely for women to find themselves in these circumstances.
Can’t the corporations make decisions of their own in good conscience about where we all live? Won’t school board members want to racially/economically integrate their schools naturally? Sometimes intervention is necessary. But yes I do agree with him when he says that there are things that we can agree on, like preventing teen pregnancy as a shared goal. How we reach that goal is where the divide happens. But it is good to try and get past extremes, to listen to each other, and see where we can work together. (Even if he does clump the NRA and the National Right to Life together.)
It’s interesting that he still thinks of children not yet born when he says we have an “obligation to children not yet born whom we are saddling with debt.”
Another thing that made me think was his comparison to Scripture (he uses the word “Scripture”) to the Constitution. I think I get what he was saying that we can read the journals and reflections of the Founding Fathers, but I do not agree with him that to understand “Timothy and Luke” (his choices) we would need an intermediary. (By the way: people ask about his background and his religion in Yahoo! Answers all the time, but the answers are actually pretty easy to find. He lists himself as black but his mom is white and his dad is black. He also lists himself as a member of the United Church of Christ. He was born in Hawaii but spent his early years in the 60s in Indonesia.)
I think it should be mentioned that Carter, Ford, Ferraro, and McCain (you know, the guy running for president) put together Project Vote Smart. Pretty cool stuff.
This quote from Obama (since I can’t hate the guy) is funny:
Few people end up being United States senators by accident; at a minimum, it requires a certain megalomania, a belief that of all the gifted people in your state, you somehow are uniquely qualified to speak on their behalf…
I wish more senators would admit to their megalomania. At least Luthor has come to grips with his Metropolis/world domination.
The Haiku:
Complaining always
Re-electing the rascals
Ninety-six percent
As much as we hate politicians, we hate change even more.
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