Obama Speaks To Me, But I’m Still Skeptical

Barack Obama entered my life on February 18, 2008 while I was just trying to make a quick buck covering a speech.

Bill Clinton’s 1992 Campaign Adviser, Dave Wilhelm, came to the Ohio University Inn to talk about his recent endorsement of Sen. Obama over Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Signs of Hope and Change plastered the walls like graffiti in an ally. Young adults and academics transpired excitement. When Wilhelm took the podium, he played orchestrator to an eager choir.

“Fire it up!” Wilhelm yelled.

“Ready to go!” audience members shouted back.

During the primaries, I did a little investigating into the two Democratic campaigns and without a doubt Obama was head and shoulders above Clinton in youth appeal.

The Obama campaign headquarters, then located in a former thrift store, had a feel of youth collaboration. Volunteers painted murals on the glass that sent a message of exuberance. The inside looked like your average college students room, the kind of organized chaos that looks unkempt and incomprehensible at the first glance but you can eventually get a sense of cohesion and function for everything in the room.

Without a doubt, the Obama campaign’s vibe grabbed our generation’s vote and led him to the Democratic nomination. According to an April 2008 Harvard poll, Obama led the youth vote (18-24) 70-30 over Clinton.

Eight months after that first encounter, there is no doubt in my mind that Obama has been the best candidate of my lifetime in appealing to college voters.

Are Young Obama Voters Idealists?

If you are not convinced that Obama has become a borderline rock star, then you have not met OU freshman Trinity Bracy.

I met Trinity, a volunteer for the Obama campaign, this year through my sister, also a freshman at OU. Last month, my sister left her single dorm room and moved in with Trinity, which is why I found myself in their room.

The picture below is of Trinity’s Sen. Joe Biden autographed Obama-Biden poster.

"I feel like (Obama is) the one who can make a difference,” Trinity told me. “I think the country is not in the right direction and Barack Obama can be the change we need."

Trinity is not alone in feeling this way. Her friend Mike Desposito, another freshman, sat next to her and reiterated the same kind of unbreakable optimism.

"The way Obama speaks, you just feel like there's hope,” Mike said. “I've heard McCain speak and I've listened to Bush speak. But I just feel that when I listen to Barack there actually is some light at the end of the tunnel."

Obama supporters can be refreshing. I was in the middle of some Obama campaign activities before the Ohio primary and those volunteers gave me the same idealist vibe that Mike and Trinity spewed out seven months later.

A lot of young voters trust Obama. A lot of young voters think his inexperience is a breath of fresh air in a failed system. A lot of young voters think his main campaign slogan, the word “Change,” will happen with an Obama administration.

So why with less than a week until Election Day am I not waving the flag on the Obama bandwagon?

Here’s Why I’m Skeptical of Barack Obama

A black candidate appeals to me because it’s a huge step in the right direction, which is to put the best people in the position to lead, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation or religious belief.

He’s not a Muslim, but that would not bother me in the least bit if he was.

I have to agree with something Mike said, Obama’s inexperience may actually be an advantage. Because being the presidency is a team game and experience can be obtained.

In the YouTube, sound bite world we live in today, a speaker like Obama reigns supreme because he works so well in that forum. But I do not think we have seen everything that works into who Obama is.

No, I’m not referring to William Ayers or Rev. Jeremiah Wright. I want someone to address the $603 million elephant in the room.

According to the Web site for the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan watchdog group aimed to inform citizens about how money in politics, $603 million is how much Obama has raised in this campaign. To put that into context, Sen. John McCain has only raised $358 million. (Here's a link to this cool image of the two candidates campaigning like they are NASCAR drivers)

Combine that $961 million to the $221 million Sen. Clinton raised and the $107 million Mitt Romney raised and you get $1.29 billion dollars.

It comes down to this, Obama has ran on this idea of Change, but it seems like he has been playing the same game as other politicians, he’s just been dominating it.

In 2004, President George Bush raised just $367 million and Sen. John Kerry collected $328 million.

Now, I’m not an expert on lobbyists or anything, but here is what I do know. People do not give money and expect nothing in return. Goldman Sachs, the financial firm that is supplying the brains behind how to use the bailout money, donated $874,207 to Obama. (Note: Goldman Sachs also donated money to McCain, just not as much. You click here to check out this site for him. This note comes after my original post.)

That could spell zero change with the bailout game plan under an Obama administration to me.

There are more reasons why I am skeptical of Obama, specifically on labor issues and economic ideology, but I’ll save that for another day once I get in touch with more expert sources.

In no way is this me making a decision on who I will vote for next week. I plan on posting later this week my reasons for not liking McCain either. But I think it’s necessary to have some healthy skepticism (not fear) of each candidate.