first i have to endorse President Elect Obama and his administration. ive been following the American presidential election with much interest and would have voted Democrat if i were American.
secondly i would like to say that while i disagree with Yaman’s criticism of Obama , i agree with your frustration over the seemingly endless political skirting that goes on at a time when the public needs to be more informed than ever. In canada we experience this on an even more exaggerrated scale. although yes, our country’s foreign policy issues are not at all of the extremity of those of the States, we do have our fair share of “current event” i.e the war in Afghanistan–yes we our involved—, the international economic crisis, environmental decay, health care, and even petroleum and energy shortages. all of the above and countless others are nauseatingly generalized and trivialized along the course of our federal elections. so even though your country suffers from ignorance because your candidates and media sheild you from the political realitites that you face you are not alone! we have little more to do than choose from five or more parties that all promise vague and undifferentiated hopes for parliaments future, all of which offer only insignificant variations on each other. the whole thing can leave you dizzy and confused. thats why we have poor voter turn out, a large dependency on exit polling, and inconsequential “trojan horse” politics.

as far as addressing the specifics of the american situation between Isreal and Palestine, give him a chance. of course the democratic party isnt going to try to win over potential voters by going over the course of acton theyll take on the Israeli occupation during a speech or a rally. if the american public werent too stupid to absorb it they would still be frightened and distracted. the elections and campaigns are no more than publicity stunts used to woo the public into picking sides. he said they are against the occupation and hes going to offer aide. the real work starts now.

thx!

I appreciate you being critical of Obama. We need, always, to investigate our presidential candidates, and even though I support him now, he ain’t perfect. The people of this country need to be smart and make sure our government is at least not entirely out of our hands. Ignorance is a huge problem in America. People just don’t know what these guys really believe, we don’t know what other countries think, we don’t know all the little connections and conspiracys that run our government. All we can do is look at what these two dudes are saying and decide who we trust more– Who is telling the truth? Who is not?

But Barack ain’t Black. and who the fuck cares if he was, lets get to the important issues here

I am lucky that I live in a state, California, where I do not really have to consider completely the full weight of voting for a third-party candidate, and enabling the Republican nightmare to win the White House for another four years. My vote for Ralph Nader is not simply an ideological one, but also based on practical considerations like the fact that CA is almost certainly firmly within Obama’s fold. Had I been in another state, I would have had to consider my vote in a different way.

My objection is not simply to Obama’s positions, but to the closed nature of political discourse, especially during campaign season, in the United States. We do not have a free flow of ideas, nor do we have engaging debates. Obama during the primaries was much cooler than Obama during the general election. That is the nature of our undemocratic system, and I reject it wholeheartedly.

But I also think cc should be ashamed of the blatant racism that is driving his vote. Are you serious, cc?