Last night Barack Obama's campaign spent close to $5 million for a 30 minute "infomercial" that aired on most networks. If you did not see it…..you should. Watch it here. The Reverend is as cynical as one gets…..but I must say….Barack Obama spoke truth with passion last night and it was emotionally moving, uplifting.
However, the focal point for me in Obama's long ad was the "choice" American voters have next Tuesday. Barack Obama closed out his long advertisement last night by encouraging voters to choose "hope over fear" and "unity over division." The choice before voters on Tuesday cannot be stated more clearly.
Back in January of this year I blogged this…
"Obama explains that telling the truth and avoiding the political tricks Hillary has been pulling…..is important. It's important because the progress Americans want,….health care, ending Iraq, economic equality, education, global warming…..cannot be accomplished by a divided government, half of whom don't trust or believe in what the other half is saying or doing.
Progress can only be made with a new American coalition of voters. Barack Obama is the only candidate on either side who can pull that off." Link
It looks like we are only a few days away from hearing the collective voice of that new coalition of voters. A coalition of former "red" states with "blue" states, a coalition of liberal, moderate and conservative voters, a coalition of black, brown, yellow, red and white Americans,…..a coalition yearning for "unity over division" for our great, yet troubled, nation…..a new coalition who have had enough and long for a new start.
Hillary, for all her great dedication, hard work and basic skills, could not have forged this type of new coalition. No other Democratic or Republican candidate on today's scene could have forged this new electorate. That's why Obama has referred to his running in this election cycle as "the fierce urgency of now." Indeed, we cannot, and will not, endure another president who divides us rather than uniting us.
The politics of division, of pitting whites against blacks, straights against gays, men against women, the uneducated against the educated, the religious against the non-religious, poor against rich….must end. It simply must. The politics of division that both sides have engaged in for so long must end. The politics of Lee Atwater and Karl Rove that seeks electoral advantage by pitting Americans against Americans in the most hateful of ways must be buried once and for all and never exhumed again.
We must truly return to a UNITED States of America.
That is the message of Barack Obama. That message has not changed one iota from when he first announced that he would run for president. He has been consistent throughout. And that consistency has resonated with Americans. The reason so many "Bush" states are polling in Obama's favor is because of his call for unity, hope and truth. The Illinois Senator has already demonstrated in the last 20 months that he can bring America together. Rather than simply mouthing the words, "I'm a uniter, not a divider", and then proceeding to drive political wedges between us after getting elected…..Obama has, remarkably, united Americans to believe and hope in their country's future again, even before taking the oath of office.
That's what true leaders do. Great leaders unite their constituents. Great leaders see and understand the larger issues of national concern and seek to unite the citizenry through honesty and hope as they actually confront those concerns instead of just talking about them.
I urge all voters to set aside their pet peeves over political and ideological matters next Tuesday. Lend your electoral voice to the cause of hope rather than fear, unity rather than division, so that our country can once again stand proud, once again lead the world with honor and dignity.
Vote for Barack Obama for President of the United States.
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you for this excellent post. It exactly expresses my thoughts and reasons for voting for Obama on Tuesday. Your paragraph on the politics of division is at the heart of the matter. We have experienced 8 years of this alignment of our Presidential Branch to fringe elements who have influenced policy that interprets the Constitution in a very narrow manner; a manner which benefits themselves and not all the people as our Constitution is meant government to do.
We live in a country where the government is by the people and for the people. Caring for others, paying taxes fairly and governing responsibly is not a new concept. It is a concept that has been buried for 8 years. What we need as you stated in one of your closing paragraphs is a leader who has the vision and talent to bring back American principles for ALL the people.
After all the campaign rhetoric from both sides, it boils down to electing a President with vision and a clear plan to steer this country through the rough waters we find ourselves in at this time… Barrack Obama.
Of course Hillary would be running away with it.
Say Amen!!
What??? He is barely polling over 50% and this means he has unified the country. Pass some of that over here, Rev.
Larry, I don't think she would, but I have the same research as you to back my case: none.
Because of one sh*tkicking dress-up cowboy named W…..it may be true that Hillary would have also defeated McCain this go around. I would have voted for her.
But she wouldn't really have represented systemic change. The return of Bill to the White House scene and the return of the media to their stupid and trivial pursuit of nonsense would have been only more of the same old.
In addition, Hillary wouldn't have had long and wide coattails like Obama. In order to break the criminal stranglehold that obstructionistic and unAmerican GOP'ers have had on Congress and the presidency for so long, it was necessary, as you'll see on Tuesday, to sweep in a solid Democratic majority.
And Bubba…the clear and unavoidable sign that Obama is unifying the country is the fact that 8 Bush states, most likely, will vote Obama this time around. You can blame that on whatever you wish….the fact seems to be that even red states have had enough of the modern conservative movement.
Reagan era conservatism will be officially pronounced dead Wednesday morning. All I can say is hallelujah.
In order to unite with Obama, I'd have to cast aside practically every political belief I hold. No thanks. The Messiah's going to have to do it without me. In fact, Messiahs are dangerous.
And in case you haven't noticed, and it seems you haven't, Obama himself preaches the politics of division. Small business vs. large business, redistribution of wealth, middle class vs. wealthy, the playing of the race card, liberal vs. conservative, union vs. non-union, capitalism vs. socialism. He promotes constant class and political warfare. "Unity" means – quiet the opposition, as always.
Obama also lies continuously. He lied about Rev. Wright and William Ayers. He lied about campaign financing. He lied about Born Alive. He lied about ACORN. He lies about his voting record all the time. He takes both sides of many issues, and reverses positions on the fly, at the drop of the hat. Even his central campaign premise, that McCain=Bush, is a lie. McCain promises to shrink government, while Bush grew it. The Obama campaign even suggests that Bush raised taxes on the middle class, another boldfaced lie. Obama says there isn't one significant economic policy difference between McCain and Bush. That is another lie. There are several differences.
Not to mention that Obama's tax and spend policies are the worst possible thing we could do to the economy right now. I think Obama knows that himself. That's why he's still adjusting his economic policy one week before the election, by adding a work requirement for his tax cut, and the $3,000 business tax credit for businesses who keep employees in the US (I'd love to hear how that one will work). If a poll came out tomorrow and showed that every American would vote for a candidate who mandated people to plant carrots in their front yard, Obama would add it to his platform the next day and be airing commercials about it.
A few frilly words like "hope", "change", and "unity" may impress you, but not me. I've been hearing pols say that stuff for 50 years. I stopped believing them for about the last 40. The policies are what matter. Every election is a "change" election. Every one.
And Rev, when you preach unity, it would probably be helpful if you weren't calling Repubicans "unamerican", "criminal", "obstructionist", and things like that at the same time.
You are a real hoot. You destroy your own arguments as fast as you make them.
In this interview by Rachel Maddow Rachel asks Obama why he does not "trash" the Republican party per se and why he also has not said "conservatism has been bad for america." I likes his answer to both questions.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/30/rachel-maddow-interviews_n_139402.html
I must admit you've been fooling me these last few months Reverend but you've revealed your reverse psychology on this one. Brilliant–your post sums up the empty headedness of Obama's campaign perfectly here.
A belated welcome aboard the McCain Train!
Excuse me…what?
Unity over division is now empty headedness?
What-the-heck-ever.
I disagree with you larry d. I did not write this statement in quotes below but I saved it because is resonated with me. It was written by a Canadian viewing America from the outside. I am not saying that this describes all Americans but it resonated with me because I have seen and felt this attitude all too often the last 10 years or so. Unity behind the common good rather than division to accomplish selfish means is what it will take to solve the huge problems facing the world today — global warming, famine, wars, genocide, lack of education, health care etc. etc. If Americans cannot unite to solve their problems how will America ever join with the world in solving its problems. Whether you support Obama or McCain. Whether you believe either one of them is capable of leading the solution or not. Without agreement and unity there will be no solution.
"In the conservative era, America's hypercompetitive society has been very quick to throw away people who haven't made the cut in some way — people without money, connections, or education; people with disabilities that make them economically less viable; people who come from the wrong racial or religious group or the wrong part of the country. You only deserve what you, personally, are capable of earning. If you're badly equipped to do that, it's your own damned fault. If you can't afford health care, you deserve to die. In no case is it the taxpayers' job to step in and make it right."
King: I stand firm on the GOP stuff. Suppressing votes in an organized crime way, wiping their butts with subpoenas,…..torture, rendition, lying us into a war of choice, eavesdropping on Americans without warrants….shall I go on….
The GOP may at one time have been an honest broker…..but with Gingrich, DeLay, and now Bush-Cheney….they've copleted the outing of themselves as a nothing but a quasi-crime family.
Add in their despicable Rovian politics of division and hate….and it's no wonder Tuesday will bring a Democratic landslide.
Thanks mary. But capitalism has fed a lot more mouths and made a lot more people happy than government programs have. It just doesn't work.
Rev,
The only organized vote fraud in this election is being done by the Democrats. It takes some real brass cojones to call it "voter suppression" when the GOP tries to stop the fraud attempts.
And my previous point was, you can't call it "unity" when you leave out half the country. That's simply partisanship, not unity. Let's say Obama wins with 48% of the vote, and McCain gets 44%. What is united about that ? The unity call is just political gamesmanship, that's all. If I were a politician, I'd be too embarrassed to even talk about stuff like that. The political differences won't go away just because Obama wants to be Der Fuehrer.
I don't get why you would be embarassed to seek unity.
I look at Colorado, Iowa, Virginia, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio and North Carolina…..see those former red states going for Obama….and I conclude that Obama's unity message is, like, working.
When Obama wins by an exponentially higher percentage than Bush did in 2004…will that be a mandate….or would Obama have to win all the electoral votes and 75% of the popular vote to be considered, you know, really elected?