“I’m voting for Obama.”

Wait… What?!

My whole life, all the political talk I’ve heard from my dad has been about how great the Republicans are. How their tax policies support our family, how their education, immigration and employment policies are better for our demographic. I’ve never known my dad to vote anything but Republican, no matter the candidate.

My whole life, all the political talk I’ve heard from my mom has been about how great the Democrats are. How their tax policies support our family, how their education, immigration and employment policies are better for out demographic. I’ve never known my mom to vote anything but Democrat, no matter the candidate.

One of my parents has been lying to me.

My parents don’t discuss politics with each other, and on the rare occasion that it gets brought up, I just tune it out, because they are on such opposite ends of the political spectrum that I feel like I’m about to watch the battle scene from Braveheart. Both sides lined up, staring each other down with their massive armies (of words in this case) behind them, just waiting for that one little misstep from the other side.

When I get political input from either of them, it’s always in secret, without the other one knowing. It’s nice to get input from both of them, but it’s very hard to get unbiased information. My mom has always been a little better at realizing that no matter what she tells me, in the end I will make my own decision, and she will actually sit there and discuss politics with me. My dad more or less preaches Republicanism to me.

The surprise of my life came last week while my dad was visiting Phoenix for the Super Bowl. I met up with him for dinner after I attended the Barack Obama rally on Jan. 30. I was ready to hear a rant about how neither Obama nor Clinton are the ones I need to be looking into. How I should look at McCain and Romney and various other Republicans. I was prepared, but it never happened.

“It’s time for a change,” he said. “I do not like Obama’s tax policy; it will hurt our family. But other than that, we need him. He reminds me of JFK, a president who was younger, hipper, and came into power during turmoil, and did a great job of calming the nation. Bush has ruined our economy, has killed our global policies, and the war… I am not even going to start with the war. Even your grandmother was fed up with Bush and was thinking about voting Democrat. The Republicans have lost their credibility.”

I’ve never met someone more conservative Republican than my grandmother. I think it’s possible that in the 2000 election, she supported Republicans more than George W. Bush himself did. If she was fed up with the Republicans, I can’t imagine a single person who is not.

In the car ride home, my dad told me he was going to vote for Obama.

I dropped him off at his hotel, he started to walk away from the car, then ran back frantically before I pulled away to make sure I heard the last thing he said.

“DO NOT tell your mother!”

Live-blog of the Democratic Debate

Before the live-blogging begins, check out this time-lapse video of the process of building the stage for the Democratic debate. The video shows just the tip of the iceberg for preparations for an event like this. Not many people realize how much behind the scenes and pre-event work is done.

Bold: Moderator
Green: Barack Obama
Red: Hillary Clinton
Anything else: Me

Wolf Blitzer: “This is the hottest ticket in town!”
Obviously it’s a hot ticket and an important event. This isn’t the Super Bowl, though, Wolf.
Wolf: “The only rules tonight… There are no rules!”
The first rule about Democratic debates is you don’t talk about Democratic debates.
The second rule of Democratic debates is YOU DON’T TALK ABOUT DEMOCRATIC DEBATES!

Alright, time for the more serious stuff…

Opening Statement Highlights:
I want to note that I was friends with Hillary Clinton before we started this campaign; I will be friends with Hillary Clinton after this campaign is over. She has done — she’s run a — we’re running a competitive race, but it’s because we both love this country, and we believe deeply in the issues that are at stake. I believe we’re at a defining moment in our history. Our nation is at war; our planet is in peril. Families all across the country are struggling with everything from back-breaking health care costs to trying to stay in their homes. And at this moment, the question is: How do we take the country in a new direction? How do we get past the divisions that have prevented us from solving these problems year after year after year? I don’t think the choice is between black and white or it’s about gender or religion. I don’t think it’s about young or old. I think what is at stake right now is whether we are looking backwards or we are looking forwards. I think it is the past versus the future.
Well, on January 20, 2009, the next president of the United States will be sworn in on the steps of the Capitol. I, as a Democrat, fervently hope you are looking at that next president. Either Barack or I will raise our hand and swear to uphold the Constitution of the United States.
Both candidates spent a lot of the time acknowledging each other’s efforts in their respective campaigns, as well as the efforts of the other candidates who have dropped out, especially John Edwards efforts in his campaign. Both highlighted the economy, the war and health care. When you read the transcript, both opening statements were relatively the same. I noticed one HUGE difference, one that you can’t pick up in the written transcript: Hillary sounded like a robot. While Barack was delivering his statement, he seemed to interact with the people. He not only looked into the crowd, but looked around the entire crowd. He had much better enunciation, and seemed completely sincere with every word he spoke. Hillary sounded like she was being forced to speak. Her pauses were awkward, her looks into the crowd weren’t natural; she would stare to the left of the stage, then back to the right, then back to the same spot on the left. It was very awkward looking, and sounded harsh and forced.

What is the most important policy distinction between Barack and Clinton. What is the most important policy difference between you and your opponent?
Barack and Hillary both acknowledged each other’s standing on issues as relatively the same as their own, with minor differences. Obama stated that “About 95 percent of our plans are similar.” The main differences in their policies focused on health care. Both agreed that a national health care system of some sort was necessary, but the main difference was that Hillary claimed Obama’s policy would force everyone to pay for health care, even if they never needed it themselves. However, it was not really in an instigating sense; it was a decent point that created no real controversy in the debate.

I like how the candidates are playing nice so far, actually acting as if they are on the same side in the political spectrum. I understand that to run a successful campaign, you need to show that you are better than your opponent, and at this stage in the process, your opponent is still one of your own people. I don’t understand why, at this stage, there are already smear-campaigns running when the opponent is still on your side! Hillary’s first line “The differences between Barack and I pale in comparison to the differences that we have with Republicans, and I want to say that first and foremost, because it’s really a stark difference,” really caught my attention, and made me feel, for the first time in this political season, that even though Obama and Clinton are against each other, in the big picture, they are teammates against the Republicans.

***A sad realization occurred to me when my tape abruptly ended in the middle of the debate: I do not know how to use a VCR* anymore. Years of DVD and DVR use have hindered my ability to change the tape speed setting from SP to LP, or even go crazy and get six hours of recording on the EP setting.

*To prove how obsolete the VCR has become in my book, it should be noted that when I originally posted this, I refered to the machine as a VHS tape player, because I could not recall the correct name. Awful.

Obama Rally

I went to the Barack Obama rally at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum yesterday afternoon. I had never really been to a political rally before. The only real encounters I’ve had with politics were from four years ago when the third presidential debate was held at ASU. And being a younger, less mature experienced individual, I spent most of the time taking pictures of funny signs or trying to get on national television by turning my light on and off in the background of a live CNN broadcast.

I didn’t go to the rally to see Obama, and while I was there, I didn’t really listen to much of the speech, or spend much time watching him. The reason I went was because my photography professor thought it would be a great opportunity to take pictures, so he cancelled the official class, and told us to go to the rally instead. For an event like that, a good picture is harder to find, because he has rallies every day. A picture of Obama on a platform with a mic is not very significant. Anyone can get that shot. So I went to the rally for a picture, not for the politics, and therefore spent most of the time listening to and watching the people in the crowd, which in the end I think was actually better than going for the politics.

I was amazed by the support that was shown by the crowd. Obviously there is going to be support for a candidate at a planned rally, but the electricity and energy inside that building was amazing, and Obama’s stature and presence at that arena was unbelievable. There wasn’t a single moment where any disconnect from Obama to the people was shown.

More important, I was truly impressed with the diversity of the crowd. I’ve been reading articles (more) about how the Republicans are going to win again, for the sole reason that the Democrats are running a woman and a black man, and the people of America aren’t ready for that kind of change yet.

I saw the complete opposite of that at this rally. People of all colors, all ages, both genders were all there together, showing equal support for both Obama and, more important, each other. I witnessed 70-year-old black men cheering with and hugging 20 year-old white girls. Older black women and younger white men sharing stories of other rallies they have attended for Obama. Every combination of race and age were interacting with each other like it’s no big deal. And they are 100% correct, it is not a big deal. It is not any deal at all. This is not 1960. This is 2008. The mass media have made too big of a deal about race, and from what I saw, luckily, the people are ignoring it.

So while I didn’t absorb a single point that Obama personally may have made at his rally, by watching and listening to the people who were there to support him, I gained a much better knowledge of the campaign that Obama is trying to run, the people who support his cause, and the fact that it is 2008, and we (Americans) are finally, FINALLY in the presence of the true possibility that it is the man behind the skin, not the color of it.