things and stuf

First of all, I am not a political person at all.

***Side note: Although I went to a school of public policy, I was the probably one of the few students who didn’t get some kind of sick enjoyment from American politics. I was okay with that.

I vote. I’m not a huge fan of labeling myself, so I don’t consider myself a Democrat or a Republican. I don’t vote for a specific party. I vote for the individual who will best run this country and do what I want them to do.

Second, I still haven’t decided who I will vote for to be the next President. As far as I’m concerned, I don’t have to make that decision until November 4, 2008.

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So yeah, I finally watched Hillary’s speech last night. On the whole, it was good. I felt inspired to vote for Barack. I felt more proud to be an American. I felt like my vote for the democratic party would be THE vote needed to get Barack into the White House on January 20, 2009… What a feeling.

But I just want to point out a few parts that stood out in my mind:

1. 12:09 minutes - Hillary goes into a blurb about “What if a Democrat had been President for the past 40 years…”

We made tremendous progress during the 90s under a Democratic President, with a flourishing economy, and our leadership for peace and security respected around the world. Just think how much more progress we could have made over the past 40 years if we had a Democratic president. Think about the lost opportunities of these past seven years - on the environment and the economy, on health care and civil rights, on education, foreign policy and the Supreme Court. Imagine how far we could’ve come, how much we could’ve achieved if we had just had a Democrat in the White House.

First she mentions the past 40 years, then she goes into the past seven. I’m not really sure what one time period has to do with the other (there have been 3 Democratic Presidents in the past 40 years), but whatever. I’ll refer to the past 7 years… I don’t want to be a downer, but I’m not really sure the nation would’ve come incredibly far with a Democratic President and a Republican Congress (from the 104th-109th Congress; except for 107th, which was mixed). I definitely haven’t seen much action in the past 7 years on matters other than national security and defense.

I just want a government that will make some kind of positive change in American society.

2. 20:15 minutes - Hillary talks about her woman-ness. I kinda liked this part:

You can be so proud that, from now on, it will be unremarkable for a woman to win primary state victories, unremarkable to have a woman in a close race to be our nominee, unremarkable to think that a woman can be the President of the United States. And that is truly remarkable.

Hell yeah, it’s pretty remarkable. Hillary has said and done some really crazy stuff, but she definitely has paved the way for women in politics. I guess I can be proud of that.

3. 21:24 minutes - Good advice from Mrs. Clinton:

Always aim high, work hard, and care deeply about what you believe in. When you stumble, keep faith. When you’re knocked down, get right back up. And never listen to anyone who says you can’t or shouldn’t go on.

Spoken just like a good mom. I think I’ll take her advice. Again, Hillary is kinda crazy, but I admire her persistence.

4. 24:40 minutes -

Every moment wasted looking back keeps us from moving forward.

I couldn’t agree more. If Democrats really want to take the White House away from Republicans, Hillary and Barack supporters really need to unite and take some serious action.