The University of Idaho Argonaut

I like Barack Obama. He’s young, friendly, eloquent, intelligent, dignified, good-looking, tall, and just so … likable. The problem is that none of those traits alone, or even all of them combined, are enough reason to make somebody president. A president should also be capable, straightforward, wise, and have well-reasoned policies. Now, I am not saying that Sen. Obama does not have these traits as well, but if he does, he has yet to demonstrate them to me.

Obama is an excellent orator, but what does he say that is so brilliant? His speeches are fun to watch, but what do we take away from them? His campaign team has worked tirelessly — and successfully — to cast him as a bringer of change and one who can unite the country, but why would he be any better at uniting the country than anybody else, and what is the change that he would bring?

The idea in many people’s heads seems to be that Obama has wonderful and new ideas, that he has policies which everybody wants and needs, that he has the ability to make the changes that we all agree need to be made, and that he will set us on a new course. However, if Obama really does have any new, original or unifying ideas or policies, he has done an excellent job of hiding them. So much so, in fact, that I can’t think of a single one that is either original or unifying. Just what exactly is he planning to do that is so wonderful?

Let us take, for example, his recent “historic” speech on race. I watched the entire 40 minutes of it, and I have yet to understand just what was supposed to be historic about it in any way, though his team did do an excellent job of contriving a very presidential setting. The speech was very nice, of course, but what did he say that was new? What did he say that was unifying? What did he say that implies a change of policy? What did he even say that George W. Bush would not have agreed with? From what I could tell, the speech amounted to a very elegant and impressive act of political damage control. I don’t begrudge Sen. Obama such a speech, but what makes it historic and unifying?

I have to ask so many questions because I have not heard any answers. I am still waiting for Obama to start talking to me and tell me just what it is that he would do so differently from anybody else.

I can understand his hesitation. Saying something concrete gives your opponents something concrete to attack. In the New Hampshire debates, all the candidates heavily criticized Mitt Romney’s healthcare plan, because he was the only one who had a healthcare plan. In the same way, if Obama were to start speaking in specifics, some people might start realizing that they don’t agree with him. He is right to be concerned about this, because despite his appeal to moderates and independents, his policies are not moderate at all, and, as far as I can tell, they are no different than Hillary Clinton’s, who is part of the “old guard.”

I’m sure that another of his hesitations is that the American people tire very quickly of a candidate who can and does explain issues and policies in detail, such as Ron Paul or Dennis Kucinich, and they much prefer Obama’s classy and easy to digest style. That style may be enough to win him the White House, but it’s not enough to get my vote.