As Promised, More Big O

The speech last night was wonderful. It was a glowing moment.

But even I have to admit some of the policy statements bothered me greatly. Cutting taxes on 95% of working families and our END of dependence on foreign oil in 10 years? Outstanding. Health care for all Americans? About damn time. Equal work for equal pay? Yes, a thousand times yes.

But is it America's job to pledge our troops towards "Protecting Israel" and "rebuilding our military for future conflicts"? It's that foreign policy mindset that got us into Iraq. Not so thrilled about that. When he said "more resources and more troops to finish the fight against the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11" it means the war shifts from Iraq to Afghanistan and possibly Pakistan for however many more years. When he says "I will tap our natural gas reserves, invest in clean coal technology, and find ways to safely harness nuclear power" he does not have the answer to the climate crisis or the energy crisis. More nuclear plants and coal plants are not going to do it. He doesn't differ an iota from McSame on those fronts.

There are some things we're not going to like about President Obama's policies. But having said that...he's still better than McSame. It's the stuff two paragraphs up that make me want to vote for him.

It's a start. But there's lots of work to do still.