For Obama, not just against McCain?

Over in Peace, Love, and Understanding, Lidija asks to be convinced why she should vote for Barack Obama, should he become the Democratic nominee. She wants reasons other than, “You have to vote for the Democrat, you have to vote against McCain.” She knows that. She wants something she can tell people, something that says why one should vote for Senator Obama, rather than just against someone else.

(And we’re not talking about Obama vs Clinton, here — the question makes the assumption that Obama becomes the nominee, and we have to turn around Clinton supporters who have taken in her message that Obama is wrong-bad-evil-awful-wrong.)

Sigh.

That you ask that shows that his campaign has gotten lost in the sound bites and slogans, and that’s a shame. I’m really getting tired of this primary election morass — it’s a destructive disaster. We have to fix the system.

The short answer is that when you look at where he stands on the various issues, you mostly agree with him on most of them, and you certainly agree with him way more than you do with McCain. And when you look at what he says that he plans to do (and get people to do), he’s mostly right on most of it.

For the longer answer, we go to his web site and look at the details.

And we find that his web site has been turned into a flashy pile of fluff, sitting on a foundation of crap. It, too, is lost in the bites and the slogans, hoping to catch people without making them think (or read) too much. Sigh, again.

He used to have a good web site, one that really told you, up front and readily, what he was about. You could see what he planned and where he stood, and you could see that you agree with him. Now he opens with that “Change!” silliness and offers to send text messages of hope to your mobile, and the whole site looks like something out of a bad movie.

Anyway, go here:
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/
and look at what he says about the issues. If you can stomach the glitter and the soft heaven-blue.

Good points: Iraq, technology, immigration, civil rights, environment, economy (mostly).

Bad point: He’s wrong about his plan for health care. But so’s Senator Clinton, I’m afraid, and so’s Senator McCain. The problem is that no one will push for the only thing that makes sense: a universal, single-payer system that covers everyone... full stop.

Stupid points: Faith and Family. Oh, please.

The trouble is that the web site makes it all motherhood. It’s now aimed more at saying that Barack Obama will solve all the world’s problems while he stands on one foot at the right hand of God, rather than giving a real assessment of what’s what.

It’s front-runner disease. When you’re an upstart, you’re real. When you’re ahead, you turn into a media machine.

Sigh, one more time.