Barack Obama

Some people are comparing Obama’s speaking abilities to Clinton. It is very good, I’d like to see him get a little better before he runs for president though. Not that he’s not already better than Kerry, which I think he is. I’m not sure about any of his issues though, I hope he’s good on cyber-liberty things. This is a particularly good passage:

Yet even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters and negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes. Well, I say to them tonight, there’s not a liberal America and a conservative America—there’s the United States of America. There’s not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there’s the United States of America. The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I’ve got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don’t like federal agents poking around our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and have gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and patriots who supported it. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.

Wouldn’t that have been better had he actually quoted the Pledge of Allegiance, and had said “divide” again instead of “slice-and-dice”, I dunno, that’s my opinion anyway. Like this:

Yet even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters and negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes. Well, I say to them tonight, there’s not a liberal America and a conservative America—there’s the United States of America. There’s not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there’s the United States of America. The pundits like to slice-and-dice divide our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats Republican states, and Democratic States. But I’ve got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don’t like federal agents poking around our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and have gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and patriots who supported it. We are one people — one Nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and Justice for every single one of us. There is not a Republican America and a Democratic America, there is the United States of America, and we will not be divided.

Maybe I like my speeches more nostalgic and emotional than some though, but he built it to that point, he could have gone all the way.