A Political Glimpse from Ireland

There’s No One As Irish As Barack Obama

All credit goes to Shaw for finding this video; I would imagine it was aired on one of RTE’s Saturday night programs:

Victory At Last

Well I haven’t quite managed to maintain the blogging schedule that I was hoping for which was at least one post a week, but maybe the month of November will be luckier for me in this regard compared to the month of October. Its getting a little chillier in Korea each day which is a blessing in my view because I really do dislike the hot weather that was here when I arrived, however with that chill comes the increasing sickness amongst most Korean people this time of the year and I can bear testament to that because I have already been sick twice.

Earlier this week the world changed with the election of Senator Obama to be the next President of the United States. The people of Korea were quite mixed in terms of an Obama presidency with the younger Korean people gravitating towards the Senator for the same reasons that most young Americans do. However the older Korean people were not so happy due to Senator Obama’s stated intention to renegotiate the FTA between Korea and the USA. I was happy off course and spent the entire lunch break and then some extra time until Senator Obama achieved the required 270 electoral votes to clinch the presidency.

That entire day was a little extraordinary because I was watching the election with one liberal Canadian and one conservative from the state of Washington. I also work with another conservative from Arizona and both of my co-workers were not happy at all when Senator Obama won. I was simply over the moon and every time on that day, I thought about “President Obama” I couldn’t help but smile. At the same time I felt a little sad for some of my conservative co-workers who started to mutter statements like:

I am just so sad to see the United States of America become the United Socialist States of America.

I think that is a bit overstated, I don’t beleive the USA will ever become socialist regardless of the policies implemented by the Obama administration. I have argued on this blog that certain policies that lean towards socialism would not be so bad especially when it comes to healthcare. For example, I was quite astounded to pay $17 to visit a Doctor and purchase antibiotics here in Korea (My health insurance doesn’t start until December). Anyway this is not meant to be an argumentative post but merely a statement of hope that some conservatives/republicans will slowly stop feeling bitter with regards to the Obama presidency.

The Words They Use

Hi everyone it is 125am at the moment in Korea which means it is 1226pm on the East Coast. I am back to blogging, sort off, and I apologize to all my friends for not visiting your blogs first but I just wanted to get this post done and get back into my blogging routine. First of all I want to thank Gordon and Big Blue for posting and continuing to keep this blog going while I have been busy, your posts were both great and judging by some of the comments, well received.

Korea is actually amazing and not what I expected in any way or form, the people are really nice though I really need to improve my speaking and reading. I tried to take the bus to into the city today and only realized after 30 minutes that I was heading into the country. Thankfully I got off before I ended up somewhere I didn’t want to be. The language barrier is the biggest issue so far as I often have to resort to hand gestures that I am sure people perceive as: “another crazy foreigner.” I have taken some pictures and I will upload them in due course, but on to the politics.

I have managed to keep track of the politics while I have been here and regarding Sarah Palin, I think she is a smart move for the McCain campaign as evidenced by her energizing the republican base. This energy is only slightly less than the Obama campaign but the problem with choosing her is that Senator McCain can no longer use the experience attack line against Senator Obama because he will inevitably be criticizing his own VP who has minimal experience. Sarah Palin is too radical and conflicts with Senator McCain’s image of a reformer as she is by far more conservative than he is and this is not a good thing.

The New York Times has an interesting comparison up on their site detailing the number of times Democrats and Republicans have used certain keywords. The interesting thing to note from a liberal perspective is that the Democrats are hitting the economy more often than the Republicans which is what the majority of Americans care about at this juncture in the political race. The Republicans have talked about god twice as much as the Democrats but that is no surprise there given that evangelicals always side with conservatives. A cursory glance at this comparison gives me hope, yes I said it , if the Democrats keep hitting the right notes and the Republicans continue on old lines of attack, we are sure to win.

Michelle Obama’s Speech

My aim to stay up and watch the DNC didn’t quite pan out last night, it started at 12am and I watched the first hour on TV. For the second hour I was listening to NPR on my PSP. For the rest of the convention I was fast asleep but the first thing I did when I woke up this morning was listen to Michelle Obama’s speech. My first impression: WOW!

Michelle Obama is as eloquent as her husband if not more, she accurately gave people a better understanding of Senator Obama while reinforcing the themes of the Obama campaign. She touched on the journey their family have taken and most importantly focused on the plight of the middle class family in modern day America. Another highlight last night was Senator Kennedy’s speech which you can find here.

American Prayer

Its a pretty good morning as far as Ireland goes, no rain and the expectation is no rain for the rest of the week though I am not sure how accurate that is. Waking up this morning I found out that Senator Biden is Senator Obama’s VP candidate, I am a bit mixed on that choice but I will withhold judgment until 3pm today (8pm Irish Time) when Senator Obama and Senator Biden will appear at an Illinois campaign event.

From the people who guessed what the potential nominee would be on this site, I guess none of us were right including myself therefore no one gets bragging rights . Anyway I need to get outside and do some yard work, I will leave you with the latest Dave Stewart Obama Music Video: