Barack Obama

George and I went to hear Barack Obama speak on Saturday afternoon. He stopped in Las Vegas to give a speech, after he appeared in Reno earlier that morning. The rally was held at Bonanza High School at Del Rey Avenue and more than 18,000 people came.



While Barack has not necessarily derived much from the other speeches he has given recently, he was still inspiring. He emphasized on the many problems this country is facing that other politicians would rather not talk about or just sweep under the rug. He said that we could solve many of the ills but that we can not rely on Washington alone. Among other things, he explained that it takes each and every one of us to help clean and save the environment, every parent to get involved in their children’s lives and their education. Furthermore, those big corporations have to finally stop just pocketing all these insane profits and start helping to re-invest into new technologies and their employees to make America competitive again.





People standing all around us seem mesmerized by him. One father proudly held his little daughter up into the air and asked her if she could see him. “Do you see him? Can you see him? That’s our next president.”



Now, George and I are not that naive to think that Obama is just going to wave a magic wand and everything will be solved when he’s become president. After eight years of utter incompetent, ignorant and devastating reign of King Bush’s administration, this task is going to be next to impossible. Bush, his puppet-master Cheney and all their cronies have literally destroyed a country, which once truly was the best country in the world. I do not recognize this country anymore nor its people. This is not the United States of America that I once knew. I grew up next to an authoritarian police state...and believe me...there’s not too much of a difference anymore.



And just when one thinks it can’t get any worse and America couldn’t possibly stoop any lower, along comes John McCain and his barbie doll of a ditz. It’s like a really bad joke. Unfortunately, it’s not. There’s a real possibility that the Bush administration will continue on if McCain gets elected. This idea just makes me shudder.



Surprisingly, there were only a handful of Republicans demonstrating outside where the event was held. They were circled by a few cops and even some mounted police officers. For the most part the opposing demonstrators were quiet. Despite its reputation of being “Sin City” and an adult’s Disneyland, Las Vegas is very conservative. As soon as one steps away from the “Strip,” it is very apparent.





Enough already. Enough of the usual conservative ways of thinking and doing. Enough of the churches meddling in politics and other people’s lives. It’s been done for eight disastrous long years. We had a guy leading this country, who supposedly was “one of us,” “someone you could have a beer with,” “folksy.” Enough is enough. I don’t want folksy. I don’t want to have a drink with the leader of the most powerful nation.



I want the president to be intelligent, smart and educated. I want him to be knowledgeable in world affairs and in cultures of other countries. I want our leader to respect other nations and their wishes and be humble when it comes to ours. I want the next president to treat each and every American citizen as absolute equals, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, national origin or religion. No more cowboy diplomacy. And sure as hell no moose and ice hockey diplomacy. The United States needs a true world leader. Not a pal one meets at a bar down the street.



We had that nonsense for eight years.



Look where it got us.