You mean Barack Obama's story? As he told it at the Democratic National Convention, it's of a piece with his positions on the Welfare Reform and the occupation of Iraq:
<blockquote>Don't get me wrong. The people I meet in small towns and big cities, in diners and office parks, they don't expect government to solve all their problems. They know they have to work hard to get ahead and they want to. Go into the collar counties around Chicago, and people will tell you they don't want their tax money wasted by a welfare agency or the Pentagon. Go into any inner city neighborhood, and folks will tell you that government alone can't teach kids to learn. They know that parents have to parent, that children can't achieve unless we raise their expectations and turn off the television sets and eradicate the slander that says a black youth with a book is acting white. No, people don't expect government to solve all their problems. But they sense, deep in their bones, that with just a change in priorities, we can make sure that every child in America has a decent shot at life, and that the doors of opportunity remain open to all. They know we can do better. And they want that choice.
<http://www.dems2004.org/site/apps/nl/content3.asp?c=luI2LaPYG&b=131063&ct=158769></blockquote>
That's a way of saying to rich educated white voters that he affirms the abolition of AFDC and he is no New Deal/Great Society liberal and of reassuring working-class constituencies that his cuts have not and will not be as draconian as Republicans'.
<blockquote>And just as Lieutenant Kerry did not hesitate to risk his life to protect the men who served with him in Vietnam, President Kerry will not hesitate one moment to use our military might to keep America safe and secure. . . . .
. . . 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.
<http://www.dems2004.org/site/apps/nl/content3.asp?c=luI2LaPYG&b=131063&ct=158769></blockquote>
That's a message that we should leave behind the division in the American public opinion before the invasion of Iraq -- which Obama opposed, saying, "What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war. What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and other arm-chair, weekend warriors in this Administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne" (qtd. in Bruce A. Dixon, "In Search of the Real Barack Obama: Can a Black Senate Candidate Resist the DLC?" <http://www.blackcommentator.com/45/45_dixon.html>) -- and embrace the occupation of Iraq as "our war," refusing to withdraw the US troops from it: "Six months before the war was launched, I questioned the evidence that would lead to us being there. Now, us having gone in there, I do think we now have a deep national security interest in making certain that Iraq is stable. If is it not stable, not only are we going to have a humanitarian crisis, I think we are also going to have a huge national security problem on our hands -- because, ironically, it has become a hotbed of terrorists as a consequence, in part, of our incursion there. In terms of timetable, I'm not somebody who thinks we can say with certainty that a year from now or six months from now we're going to be able to pull down troops. I think that we have to do three things. Number one, we have to rapidly advance the speed with which we are training Iraqi troops and security forces so that they can stabilize the country, and that's going to require our help. . . . This is no longer George Bush's war, this is our war, and we all have a stake in it" ("Alan Keyes and Barack Obama Debate, Hosted by Illinois Radio Network," October 12, 2004, <http://www.renewamerica.us/archives/media/debates/04_10_12irndebate.htm>).
At 7:45 AM -0500 11/7/04, snit snat wrote:
>I find inspiration in some of the Founders.
Many speeches and pamphlets by American Revolutionaries ought to resonate among Americans on the left after November 3, 2004. Here is my favorite, as we head toward winter:
<blockquote>THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. . . .
Whether the independence of the continent was declared too soon, or delayed too long, I will not now enter into as an argument; my own simple opinion is, that had it been eight months earlier, it would have been much better. We did not make a proper use of last winter, neither could we, while we were in a dependent state. However, the fault, if it were one, was all our own*; we have none to blame but ourselves. But no great deal is lost yet. All that Howe has been doing for this month past, is rather a ravage than a conquest, which the spirit of the Jerseys, a year ago, would have quickly repulsed, and which time and a little resolution will soon recover. . . .
* The present winter is worth an age, if rightly employed; but, if lost or neglected, the whole continent will partake of the evil; and there is no punishment that man does not deserve, be he who, or what, or where he will, that may be the means of sacrificing a season so precious and useful.
(Thomas Paine, "The American Crisis I," December 23, 1776, <http://www.thomaspaine.org/Archives/Crisis-1.html>)</blockquote> -- Yoshie
* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/> * Greens for Nader: <http://greensfornader.net/> * Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * OSU-GESO: <http://www.osu-geso.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>