His energy policy left me bland. He did say that drilling was just a temporary measure, and that there would be vast support for renewables. But he also said he supports an increase of safe nuclear power. Safe nuclear power is not going to happen in a nation with grandma peace activists on no-fly lists. His comments on Georgia indicate he does seem to have learned that he'd best moderate his comments about Russia, which he'll have to mouth until he gets the win, because it will be such a central part of McCain's campaign shit.
I won't have any problem voting for him, but like many national votes in amurka, it will be with the eyes of reality open.
What impressed me the most was his life's path, and how he worked that into who he is as a politician. Amurka could do far worse than this (first African-American) President of the Harvard Law Review, who achieved that pulling himself up from relative poverty. That's far more encouraging than anything currently on the horizon, or from the past post-Carter decades.
I expect his triangulation comes a bit more from the heart than that of the Clinton dynasty, and this will be a strong plus. That he will have to govern during the end of empire and financial meltdown will be very, very hard. But there's probably no one better equipped on the current scene.
(I wish Gore hadn't been fast on his points, as he gave a very detailed policy speech leading up to Obama. It wasn't as effective as possible, but perhaps as necessary.) "Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin
E.g. He followed up a promise to reduce dependency on foreign oil with a nice story about cars for everyone! Built in the US! For everyone! Not so much about making travel and city design saner and - oh dear - maybe even more European.
Also - clean coal? What is clean coal?
Considering the rest was all dare-to-dream, I thought the dreams weren't all that daring. And the foreign policy lines were downright scary and hawkish. He's smart enough to make negotiations with Putin, er, Medvedev, far more interesting than the clown show the Bush team have turned them into, but he also sounds too ideologically blinkered and too much of an exceptionalist to be good at effective realpolitik.
Still he is who he is, and while he's not Mr Aggressive Progressive, he's moving in a better direction.
The real enemy from now on won't be McCain, it's going to be the various corporate machines and their Washington puppets, who are going to be trying very hard to push the policy agenda back towards the right, even after a likely Dem win.
But I'm not sure if Migeru wanted to put that as a plus. If lying wouldn't be more effective in a campaign than telling the truth, anybody who cuts taxes, would have to explain, where to cut expenditures, too. Of course McCain's proposals are complete fantasy without any connection to reality, but when Obama doesn't want to cut military spending, and this is difficult, when he wants to escalate Afghanistan, he needs more tax income.
Some coal is cleaned at the source, before it's burned, as when a mountain top is cleanly stripped of its top. The part that is not cleaned is washed down into former stream beds, where the gentle water that used to flow there purifies the silt into paradisical farm lands where even farmer's wives in gingham dresses can grow gardens of organic coal potatoes.
What little dirt remains on washed coal is then burned, with some leaking into the atmosphere. But it does not damage, as it is heavier than air, and falls down either in the northeastern forests and lakes, or in the chasms of the Grand Canyon, so it doesn't affect people directly (except for the ones who continue to breathe.)
Clean coal also protects people from being overly stunned by the beauty of the Grand Canyon, as they don't have to be awed by a view of the other side anymore.
Go Barack "Energy is My Middle Name" Obama! "Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin
