CHANGE how?

I watched Obama's speech at the Democratic National Convention tonight. I loved how some people were there with their change signs and tears streaming down their face. Did they have auditions to make it into the Denver stadium?

As a rhetorician, I'll be the first to admit that Obama has smooth and collected public appearance. He is a good orator and resonates well with a younger crowd. He said all the right things and told all the right personal anecdotes. Poor little Barack, from a single-parent family, pulled himself up by his bootstraps. Yeah, Columbia. And Harvard. But he's just your average guy. McCain; however, he's a neo-conservative elitist, with money in his back pocket since the day he was born.

I like what blogger, Megan McArdle had to say:

Obama makes you want to believe in him. That's why the conservatives hate him really hate him--the way that many liberals still say the name "Reagan" the way my grandmother said "Satan". Obama will not change the world. But he makes his ideas appealing by sheer force of personality.

So True. Obama can rally the crowds. And this scares me.


Within Obama's flowing words tonight, he made some big promises. End dependence on foreign oil? Stop the war in Iraq? Fix the health care system? Tax breaks for 95% of the American population? Get big business to create job in the US instead of overseas? Great Obama. BUT HOW ARE YOU GOING TO DO THIS? Change. Yeah yeah. We all want that. We all look forward to better days ahead, but let's be realistic, our friend gave us a bunch fancy words and with no manpower behind them. He can't do those things; and especially not with the policy that he promotes.

Sometimes hearing what I want to hear, (i.e. change for a better America), only makes me more skeptical that I will never get it from the source of those words. Show me how the government is going to be more responsible based on sound theory and practical implementation and you can have my vote. Republican Convention next week--hopefully empty promises with be followed by solid substance. Can't somebody have good intentions and the means for following through?