Barack Obama's speech yesterday in Indiana was, frankly, one of the strongest he's ever delivered. And for five very good reasons:
1) He presented a clear and incisive outline of how our current financial crisis occurred (or was allowed to occur, under the present administration). Unlike John McCain, who prides himself on being anti-regulation and still maintains that tax cuts to the wealthy will prompt movement in the economy, Obama stated convincingly his belief that in a complicated global economy, there is a role for government in providing appropriate oversight.
2) Obama emphasized that the government rescue plan, though flawed, was crucial if we were going to solve the credit crunch. Cracking that logjam is vital, since both the average citizen and the small business owner relies on credit to secure a car loan, or maintain employee payrolls.
3) As a baby-boomer, I well remember JFK's call to the nation to pull together, to set lofty goals, and to understand that each of us had a stake in America's future. I thought both Obama's rhetoric and the content of his speech reminded us of that shared vision, shared responsibility, and shared goals.
4) He spoke vigorously against fear and panic, and in favor of the value of leadership in the face of crisis. Quite a contrast to the fear-mongering approach of a desperate McCain-Palin campaign.
5) Overall, he spoke as someone whose time has come. Despite McCain's best efforts in the debate the night before in Nashville, he was unable to convince voters that Barack Obama was not fit to be president. And since the only remaining weapon the
McCain-Palin ticket has in its arsenal is attacks on Obama as a person, it's apparent that Obama is surviving that onslaught pretty well.
That's why my favorite line of Obama's speech, in reference to these personal attacks, was, "I can survive four more weeks of John McCain; but this country can't survive four more years of Bush's policies."
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