Barack Obama Revelations:
#1.
Big checks or fat funders?
Obama’s Dollar Value
Was Barack Obama’s historic 2008 campaign really funded by millions of small donations and “not by folks writing big checks”?
In a chapter entitled “Obama’s Dollar Value,” Street shows how candidate Obama was backed by corporate and political elites as far back as October 2003, when he met with Beltway and Wall Street insiders, and began taking in campaign donations from the very same banks now in “too big too fail.” Among these companies were; Goldman Sachs, UBS AG, Lehman Brothers, JP Morgan Chase, and Citibank. “What’s the dollar value of a starry-eyed idealist?” asks one big donor who preferred to remain anonymous. And, not surprisingly, Obama’s voting record indicates he has rewarded his donors with policies and programs that best serve their interests. This came to the U.S. people as a shock because during his campaign he was all about saving money and not taking from the huge corporations. Some people think of this as being deceitful, I’m not sure what to think, I mean whatever he did he did it right cause he got elected. Is it that big of a deal?
#2.
Foolery
Fooling voters on presidential financing
A year after Obama announced a presidential canadancy that he claimed would help rescue U.S. politics and government from big money, special interest domination, the Center for Responsive Politics reported that he had raised more than $102 million in 2007. $13 mill less than Hillarys record high. "Over 1 million Donors and Obama claimed he had no clue how much money had been raised."(street pg.73) A year earlier Obama had pledged to accept public financing for the general election if his Republican opponent did the same. However the only one to take him up on this was McCain. When this came up, they told the Obama committee that he had givin his word and if he were not to come through with it, than he was fooling his voters. With $102 million dollars coming in for Obama that is a whole ton of funding. He was quoted to had estimated he about 1 million donors giving 25 to 50 dollars each…that doesn’t get him more than half of the $102 million that he received by the end. Attempting to hold candidates to public funding would be very difficult and I feel as though in the end it would only cause more problems because if you tell someone they cant do something they are usually going to go and do it.
#3.
Carbon monoxide, good for the soul
Healthcare for hybrids
Basically this was a simple article and yet it could have made major changes to today’s economy. Obama backed a U.S. senator in introducing in passing a healthcare for hybrids bill. "They looked into granting hundreds of thousands of federal dollars to the nations leading auto companies to relieve them of costs of paying for the retirees’ healthcare."(Street pg.89) As I understand, in return for the bailout, these companies would be making more and more hybrid cars. This was looked upon as a positive, innovative motion in using a powerful industry like a seesaw to turn our society into a more productive community. However others look at this as a negative turn on our economy, using tax payers money to incentivize these companies to slow its assault on global ecology instead of persuading them to align its behavior with environmental needs within the public interest.
#4.
Just a pencil or a whole box of crayons
Obama, How different on Race
As observed by probably many, Barack Obama is African American, and he has been very well educated on racial discrimination. He mentions past leaders such as Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, and many others. He was a organizer of black poor people on the south side of Chicago. He was part of an “Afrocentric” church, and he was the only candidate to oppose the Iraq occupation at the beginning. In this article he is said to have gone to considerable lengths to reassure whites that he will let them feel good about their willingness to vote for a black and that he will not push defensive white buttons by meaningfully addressing the persistent powerful roll white privilege continues to play in the united states. However a good simple point is made that clearly racism poses much less of a threat to black advancement and equality because he was elected president on a very positive note. It is thought that his race has helped him in bother running’s of senator and president, making him look more change-oriented and progressive than he really is. I grew up in a small town in central Massachusetts. Very little amount of any sort of diversity was present at my high school and that does bring a problem of race to attention for all. I’ve even heard my little sister comment on the lack of African Americans at school. But because of that she thinks that there’s hardly any African Americans anywhere. When I went to college in Boston my tables were turned and in my new school I was quickly made a minority. This did not bother me, however at first I did feel uncomfortable, sitting in someone else’s shoes opened up my eyes to a lot. This country has come a long way from its old problems with one of its largest being race. However racism is still a problem in the United States and will most likely be for a bit longer. We are progressing though and Barack is definitely helping us through that.
#5.
Haters gota hate
“Handed to Black America”
This article makes a good point, not exactly a positive one but a point that pushes Obama away from his people. The citizens of the United states want to be able to relate to their president so that they can enjoy him and back him when their country is in trouble. Obama being the first black president took every by surprise and it made the “black” community very happy. It made them feel privileged, as they should have because it showed that America was on its way up and that as a community we were coming together. In this article they are saying that African Americans of America feel as though he is not one of them. “Obama seems to have been handed to black America, more than he has arisen from it.”(Gary Young)pg. 83. He is only half black, he did not grow up in the south he’s from Hawaii. He’s only African not African American. So, he has been handed to them, from a high privileged wealthy school such as Harvard
#6.
Oil Shmoil
“Ignoring oil”
Widely understood to be the major precipitating factor behind the invasion and behind the United States inability to leave, Iraq has a tremendous oil reserve. “it’s a country in one of the most volatile parts of the world” says Street. Obama is being accused of ignoring the problem of our troops in Iraq and the reasons behind that. Casualties in Iraq are piling up and even I feel as though answers should be brought to the surface faster than they are. Iraq is a continuing disaster zone on a catastrophic scale hard to math in recent history.
#7.
Global Dominance
“The Last Best Hope On Earth”
The need to not back down they explain, is why we used “the worlds greatest military” to enforce American Global Dominance in Iraq. Still thinking that America is the last, and best place to be on Earth, Obama rejected the notion that the American moment had passed. The new century we could be another, where we lead the world in battling immediate evils and promoting the common good. Not sure if this is a good thing or not…
#8.
Obamanation
“Deception”
Elections are all about fooling voters into believing candidates are similar to them and that they can relate to their leaders. Iraq, Health care, energy and globalization are all major categories that Obama’s views are similar to most other runners. However his image and his rhetoric have been carefully crafted to to tell primary voters that he is one of them. Foolery, or pseudo populist deception.
#9.
Barack Hilton
Celebrity, Pure and Simple.
The students around America love Obama. I’m a young adult I know. The young population of our nation love Barack Obama. He’s on tTV, he’s cool, and he popped out of no where making him “mysterious.” Ladies like that. "He simply appealed to the younger audience because he was down with change and young kids love that. He’s Handsome.”pg.200 Its pretty simple actually. Hate Bush, love Obama. That’s what kids think is cool these days and however he did it, he did it right cause he won a lot of people over.
#10.
Family Guy
“Media Love Matters”
The Media love Barack Obama, he is something new, exciting and I guess in a way unpredictable. Everything that Hillary isn’t. With all the coverage Obama has gotten it was a sure sign right away that he was being accepted into the U.S. community. The Media used its abilities to create a celebrity out of Barack and yes that did help him, but it also made him look at his running’s with a different aspect. He had to be more appealing and more friendly than business like and serious. For him to be able to work through that showed he was a well rounded candidate and a real guy.
