Many here say that Obama lacks substance, that he is inspirational and a great speaker. One of my fellow DUers and friends has labelled it as "Obama is a poem: lyrical and inspirational; Hillary is an essay: reasoned & informed". (post here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x4514276). I found his post inspiring.
What I have found frustrating lately is that this argument, made by so many here, avoids discussing the importance of Shared Vision. There is a reason that we, as human beings, admire people who can do it. We call them Visionaries for a reason. What they do so easily, naturally and with grace, only a handful of people can do in a generation: take an idea, visualize it, communicate it and then inspire people to join them in turning that vision into a reality. The Visionaries of the human race are true creators. They are creators of wonderful, beautiful things. Yes, there are evil people with this power, but there are far more people with this talent that choose to do good with it. And those that can do it must take domain subject knowledge and ideas, transform that knowledge into communicable concepts and plans and then, here's the hard part, get others to believe that the ideas can become a reality. Yes, we are talking about creating and changing the reality that we live in.
Senator Obama is a Visionary. He has dealt with adversity, seen and lived through difficult times, has educated himself and seen the importance of helping others. He has seen the problems that Americans are living with, first hand. He has been on the ground helping them. And he has had a vision. He took his visionary ideas, first, to the Illinois State Legislature, where he did many good things, working not with Republicans or Democrats, but PEOPLE. Yes, he was able to convince the people in the government to see his vision, see that it could become a reality and then, with some work by all, turned into a reality that helped many many citizens of the state. Using his talents, he convinced the people in the government to be transparent about their work and that, if they did good, there really was nothing that couldn't or shouldn't be public. He convinced people, using his visionary talents, that it was important to not tax the poor, to provide for them housing and to feed them and provide them medical care.
It was no wonder that many felt he needed to take these talents to the U.S. Senate and represent Illinois and share his vision with those in the Federal Government. And he has. He took his ability to work with PEOPLE to the U.S. Senate. He didn't work with Democrats and Republicans. He worked with PEOPLE. He shared his vision, communicated the plans that would turn them into reality, met adversity and cynics, and overcame, passing a great deal of legislation for a junior senator. Amazingly, he was able to share his vision of transparency in government and pass it as the "Coburn-Obama Transparency Act" and as the ""Honest Leadership and Open Government Act". He also sponsored a Senate amendment to the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) which passed through of Congress, but was vetoed by Bush (some people just can't see any vision).
And now, Obama has a vision for a new America. A vision where all have access to healthcare, where the poor are actually cared for and not forgotten and a vision that has our soldiers coming home from Iraq and focusing more on peace as a nation than war. His vision for America is not unlike Senator Clintons. And no wonder, they are both great Americans and great Democrats and they are going to have much in common. "We are not so divided as our politics suggest." But Senator Obama has done something that happens so rarely: he has given people hope. And, as he communicated so gracefully in his speech, "in the unlikely story of America, there has never been anything false about hope." And this is not a hope for Democrats, nor a hope for Republicans. It is a hope for all Americans, male, female, gay, straight, every race, every walk of life, it is for ALL AMERICANS. And Americans are seeing his vision. They like what they see. And, they believe in the plan that will turn this vision into a reality. They are ready to work. They are waiting. They are deciding. They are hoping.
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