Interview with Obama

Heard an interview with Obama this morning, on 106.9FM KCBS, and a followup with a Republican representative whose name I didn’t catch. Kinda kicked my head into gear on a few things and I just wanted to rattle them out here.

* The comparisons, in regards to the whole health care thing, between Barack Obama & Adolf Hitler are ludicrous. Of the many things that come to mind when Hitler comes up, not one of them have anything to do with his health care program.

* The ‘death panel’ thing is beyond idiotic. It’s not anywhere in Obama’s health care program and it seems unlikely that it will ever be added to it. Interestingly enough, current health care programs already have something that be attributed to be death panels, insofar as HMO’s refusing continued care for the elderly, but you don’t really hear people getting up in arms about that. Well, they do but nowhere as much as what they’re lobbing at Obama. It almost seems as though they’ve forgotten about the actual thing to direct their attention at the one that doesn’t exist.

* Obama is our president. We voted for him. If you didn’t vote for anybody then you still voted for him, technically. Also kinda kills any complaining you might be doing in his direction because by not voting you stifled your own voice. Then again, if you did vote for Cheney you are a braver soul then I can credit given the horrorshow he had a for a vice·presidential candidate.

* It may seem unrealistic that the changes that Obama would like to accomplish can be done without raising taxes. I don’t know, most things financial confound me. However, whether or not he gets what he wants done…done, taxes will increase regardless. They always do. I’d much rather they go up for positive reasons instead of just going up for any number of other random things.

* I really do like Obama. There’s a host of reasons but the biggie is that I genuinely trust the man, as much as I can for someone I’ve got actually met. He just radiates confidence to me. It has nothing to do with his race but it may be a larger part of his family and the love they all have. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a president who was such a major family man. Given the lunkhead we had for the last 8 years, when he got into his office Dubya’s daughters were major party girls who got continually busted for drinking under the influence, using the drugs, and there were more than a few rumors of sexual shennagians as well. The previous vice·president, a major homophobe, practically disowned his own daughter for being a lesbian; still remember when they won the first election how Cheney made a significant move to step around her when she tried to hug him in congratulations. Prior to them, Clinton was a little better…at least he had a good parent/child relationship with his kid…and she was good people.

* Yes, I liked Bill Clinton. Still do. When he was in office I was on Cloud 9. This came up with a friend of mine recently, who I remember also liked him when he was in office at the time but doesn’t now…and probably doesn’t remember. Clinton was in my eyes a good president, a good father, and a lousy husband. Frankly, I’m more surprised when a president doesn’t cheat on their significant other then when they do. Traditionally, %·wise, most of them have. It doesn’t excuse it but it’s kinda like how when it rains I expect the ground to get wet.

* As this seems to be the up in arms thing right now, I don’t believe that the “You lie!” thing was about race. The man himself may be a racist, I have no idea, but I don’t think that one particular stupid blurting had anything to do with race. I don’t think that the Hitler comparisons and the town hall meetings stuff are about race. I don’t think everything is about race, or even just the perception of it. People can be completely idiotic in mass numbers for things that have nothing to do with racism and still be completely about ignorance.

* I do think that Rush Limbaugh’s “Obama the Magic Negro” bit was racial and just further evidence of Rush’s brain turning into swiss cheese. His claiming after the fact that he’s like John Stewart on The Daily Show was a badly timed and totally pointless act of saving grace. You can’t say something in seriousness and still hope to be excused for it, by saying it was anything but, after the fact when you realize the people listening were horrified by you.

* Skimming one of the member’s posts, off the friendslist of Cwazy AmericansUSA·de·Quirky I saw a bit about Blackwater; you should know who you are. That Obama has approved their continued funding so that the government can still utilize their services. Not sure how I feel about that. Reading the article gave more the impression that it was more the Obama Administration, which is still him but kinda gives the impression of more than just him, that was behind this. Also seemed more pushed by someone working for Obama than the man himself but still…I dunno. Very the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing. I’m on the fence about that.

* Just because there are things that Obama does I don’t like doesn’t mean I suddenly hate him. If I were to do that sort of thing with the people I know I wouldn’t have any friends.

* Can’t help but think, given his efforts to make himself much more in the public eye than previous folks that held the office, that most of the people that dislike Obama more for all the insanity going on in blogs all over the place than stuff actually having to do with the actual man himself. From the socialism thing to people that actually thought he was going to order the deaths of their grandparents, I hear more stuff negative directed at the president like that than anything actually grounded in reality. Even a friend of mine that seems obsessed with sending me stuff to chip away my image of the man, it’s usually less his stuff than the rhetoric of others.

Eight truths i hold

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