Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Oh Yeah! OBAMA!!!





I had an amazing night. Most people have the weekend. I have Tuesday nights.

Tonight Barack Obama came to speak in Des Moines. I went to go see him speak. It left me speechless (insert comment about me never shutting up here).

I caucused for Obama. When I saw Obama speak at the 2004 convention I decided that I would caucus for him if he ever ran for president. I somehow missed out on him when he was in Des Moines before the caucuses in January.

If you live in Des Moines during caucus season it is hard not to see the candidates. I saw several of the canidates at work. I went to see Tommy Thompson, John McCain, and Mike Huckabee speak. I even shook Mike Huckabee's hand. He looked me in the eye and asked for my vote. I considered it*. Mike Huckabee impresses me. I think he's a good man. He really cares about people. I am sure that is shocking to many of my readers. It is probably confusing for you to hear of me chatting up the republican candidates. Let me remind you: I work at a large insurance company. Large insurance companies are not traditionally known as liberal strongholds.

I'm on the committee that invites the candidates to speak. We invited all of the candidates; only the republicans accepted. For some reason the democrats declined to speak at a HUGE insurance company. Go figure. I think it's because they don't know the difference between P&C insurance and Health Insurance. But I digress.......

Tonight was amazing. Barack Obama makes me love this country even more. I don't think I've ever clapped or yelled as hard in my life.....and that includes the New Kids on the Block concert I went to (as well as the time Annie, Claire, Megan, and I saw Jordan perform at a bowling alley in Sioux City). He is inspiring on a level I've never seen before. His speech made me clap and tear up. He is an amazing man. I hope I will be able to vote for him in November. I hope you will vote for him too.

No matter what your political preferences are, be they tiny old candidates, Ron Paul, independent candidates, Green Party candidates, Hillary, or Barack, I hope that you can find inspiration in your candidate. I hope that you will hear him (or her) speak and want to take action to make the world a better place. I hope we can work together as a country to be a better place, not fight each other over petty issues. At the core of us all, we are so similar. When it comes to political races we just focus on our differences. Let's shift the focus to what makes us the same.

What do we all agree on? What really matters to us? I think we each need to figure it out and think about that when we vote. Are we voting based on what we are told to vote for, or are we voting on what is really important. Do you vote democrat because your parent's were democrat? Do you vote republican because your friends are republican? Don't vote for others, vote for yourself.

God bless America.

* After considering it I remembered that I love equal rights for all. Call me kookie, but I can't help it.

For all of the Christian voters that check out my blog I recommend http://blog.beliefnet.com/godspolitics/

2 comments:

FlippyHolz said...

For the record, my folks are registered Republicans, I am a registered Republican, I am married to a registered Republican. I am a lawyer for a huge insurance company. (just call me Newt) And I am voting for Obama. SO there. thpppttt. :)

DiscKnits said...

I have never had the privlege of seeing Mr. O in person, but I watched his speech after the Iowa caucuses in January and got choked up. I think many of our parents just don't understand how disillusioned our generation has become with politics, and how much it means to us to have a candidate we can believe in.