In all fairness…
I think that people don’t give Obama enough credit for what stances he *does* take and what actions he *does* take.
In a recen’t quote, Hillary Clinton said some things like, “It is about picking a president who relies not just on words but on work” and “The best words in the world aren’t enough unless you match them with action.”
ok, let’s look at it:
Clinton (as well as many, many others) keep blasting Obama for being a man of words and not action. However, let’s compare a little.
we have two senators: 1 with a full 6-year term (Clinton), the other with roughly 4 years as a senator (Obama).
Clinton and the media keep spouting all this stuff about how inexperienced Obama is as a senator; how it means that he’s too inexperienced to be the President. But… Clinton has only been a senator for 2 more years than Obama. That’s not exactly an over-load of experience that tips the scales in some incredible direction.
Next, let’s look at “action”. Clinton keeps telling everyone that she’s a woman of action, and that Obama will need more than words to prove what kind of person he is. Naturally, I agree that, while important, words do not count for everything; I agree that we need someone willing to take action.
BUT.
In reality, he takes just as much action as anyone.
Let’s take into account the fact that in his first elected years, Obama sponsored and introduced over 820 bills, broken down to:
233 regarding healthcare reform,
125 on poverty and public assistance,
112 crime fighting bills,
97 economic bills,
60 human rights and anti-discrimination bills,
21 ethics reform bills,
15 gun control bills,
6 veterans affairs bills
and a handful of others.
in his first year in the Senate alone, he authored 152 bills and co-sponsored another 427. These inculded:
- the Coburn-Obama Government Transparency Act of 2006 (became law),
- The Lugar-Obama Nuclear Non-proliferation and Conventional Weapons Threat Reduction Act, (became law),
- The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act, passed the Senate,
- The 2007 Government Ethics Bill, (became law),
- The Protection Against Excessive Executive Compensation Bill, (In committee)
and a bunch more.
want to know how many Clinton passed in her 6 years as a Senator?
20 twenty pieces of legislation. t-w-e-n-t-y.
I’d say that’s a pretty considerable difference in numbers.
I’d also say that it’s a little clearer vision of how Obama can take just as much action as Clinton can; I think it’s unfair of anyone to claim he doesn’t take action.
(all of these things can be found listed in Senate Records located at the Library of Congress www.thomas.loc.gov.)
also, in all fairness, he has stated his stance on where he’d like to go with things like foreign trade, Welfare, Medicare & Social Security. Just take a look at the economic speech he gave in Janesville, WI.
I could end up eating my words about Barack Obama, but I’d rather be this fired up with hope in a candidate, than be spoon-fed (and force-fed) the same, unpromising, uninspiring bullshit that this country gets fed year after year by the people who run it.
As sad as it is to say, we put these people in power and then blame them for doing a bad job, instead of just informing ourselves and taking responsibility for the choices we make.
I’m going to shut up now, but I hope there are still some people out there that at least see where I’m coming from on all of this.
xoxo,
- Tristan -