I like Barack Obama. I really do. While I doubt that he can completely deliver on all his promises for change, there is something extremely fortifying about the way he speaks. He makes you believe that he can make the difference, and that you want to help him do so! And I love his no-nonsense demeanour, and his unassuming upbringing. Truly, this is a man with the charisma to rally an ailing nation to its feet again.

The video of him accepting his nomination as the democrats' presidential candidate is below. Towards the middle there are parts of his speech which really remind me of that "I have a dream speech", especially the repetitive "Now is the time" rhetoric. I wonder if it isn't just a coincidence that it was structured as such, since Obama's speech was made on the anniversary of MLK's original dream speech. Check it out for yourself, but be warned that the whole video is over 50 minutes long. Heh.



I watched McCain's vice-presidential announcement of Sarah Palin too, and like everyone else I went "Huh???". If he thinks that 44-year old Palin's one-year of governing experience equips her to lead a country, then surely he must concede that Obama's "judgement" will suffice as well. It just seems like a desperate attempt to generate some interest in his rather lacklustre campaign thus far. What bugs me the most is still McCain's pro-war stance, and it sickened me to see Palin speak in length about her eldest son who had just begun his tour of duty in Iraq. I hate it when people glorify war. And I hate the way Palin made use of her son's sacrifice just to garner a few nationalistic cheers, and emphasise McCain's fully heroic Vietnam war experience which he (and now Palin) are determined to never let us forget.

Arming yourself to kill others simply because they disagree with your political ideas is something which can just never be justified. In fact, it is as bad as killing fetuses, and it is true hypocrisy for McCain to be both pro-war and pro-life at the same time. But I guess maybe he just believes that citizens of other countries are less deserving of life than say a unicellular zygote. And the suspicion of peace-threatening activities is totally an excellent reason to just invade and conquer all oil-producing countries! And while we're at it, we should occupy and oppress their innocent civilians FOREVER, muahahaha, says McCain.

I hope Obama crushes McCain like a friggin cockroach!