Mr. Obama.

As much as it pains me to say it, I see why so many people like Barack Obama. After reading his website I wasn't too impressed. However, after hearing his speach from New Hampshire his popularity is no longer a mystery to me.

I know. I know. The dogmatist came late to this party, but I loved his speaking style. He is like Reagan meets King meets Kennedy. Ask not what Obama can do for you, but who bought this microphone.

Below please find a few quotations from his New Hampshire victory speech and the dogmatist's take on each one.

On education
Obama: "We can stop sending our children to schools with corridors of shame and start putting them on a pathway to success."
Dogmatist: Ok, a little cheesy to start off, but I was mostly upset. My school only has breezeways of shame.

Still on education
Obama: "We can stop talking about how great teachers are and start rewarding them for their greatness by giving them more pay and more support."
Dogmatist: I like this one. However, if you go to his website his answer for education is No Child Left Behind with more money. I suppose the best way to cure a failing bureaucracy is to give it more money. Despite his talk of change Obama shows his traditional Democrat tendencies.

On energy independence
Obama: "We can harness the ingenuity of farmers and scientists, citizens and entrepreneurs to free this nation from the tyranny of oil and save our planet from a point of no return."
Dogmatist: Can't you hear Ronald Reagan all over that? Replace 'tyranny of oil' with 'red menace' and it is almost a direct quote.

On campaigning and terrorism (one and the same?)
Obama: "And we will never use 9/11 as a way to scare up votes, because it is not a tactic to win an election. It is a challenge that should unite America and the world against the common threats of the 21st century: terrorism and nuclear weapons, climate change and poverty, genocide and disease."
Dogmatist: That wasn't to scare up votes? Still, well said.

On hope
Obama: "We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics...We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope."
Dogmatist: Here you really feel the preacher in Obama coming out. Passionate, inspiring, flag waiving. I guess George Bush only gets stoned by the villagers for one of those.

On the question, "Can we?"
Obama: "And, together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story, with three words that will ring from coast to coast, from sea to shining sea: Yes, we can."
Dogmatist: From every mountain, in every valley, from hill to dale and other words no one uses anymore, from space station to clean burning coal mine, from immigrant laborer to Fortune 500 CEO (well, maybe not), from the corridors of shame in the schools to the corridors of shame in Washington D.C., from the Redwood Forest to the Gulf Stream Waters, Yes we can, Yes We Can, YES WE CAN!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Wkahd;lfjas;dfja;oshdf;has;ldkjf;asdf;lkj. Typing in tounges. The left won't like that.

All in all, a powerful old-school speech from a new-school politician running on an old-school premise of change.




Picture taken from: the United States Senate