Why I Like Obama

Whether it’s true or not, Barack Obama comes across as genuine to me. It’s not a characteristic that’s easy to define, but a good example occurred in one of the debates when the main candidates left in the primary race were Clinton, Edwards, and Obama. Each candidate was asked what their greatest weakness was:

Clinton: "I get impatient. I get, you know, really frustrated when people don’t seem to understand that we can do so much more to help each other."

Edwards: "I sometimes have a very powerful emotional response to pain that I see around me."

And Obama? What did he say?

Obama: "I ask my staff members not to hand me paper until two seconds before I need it because I will lose it. And my desk and my office don’t look good."

So basically, Hillary and Edwards gave the "This is my first job interview ever and here’s what the book I read last night told me to say" answer. And Obama said he wasn’t organized. The only honest and real answer of the three of them.

It reminds me of why, in the gubernatorial recall election of Gray Davis here in California, I ended up voting for Schwarzenegger. Initially, I was going to vote against the recall. But then Gray Davis signed a bill that would allow illegal aliens to get drivers licenses. It wasn’t the law itself that I was I necessarily against. It was that Davis had vetoed the same bill twice before, for arguably good reasons, but then decided to sign the same bill shortly before the recall election. Why? Because he was pandering to Latinos, trying to win their votes. That’s what made me decide to vote against Davis. Then, I was going to vote for Cruz Bustamante. But in a debate with Schwarzenegger, Bustamante made some snide remarks about how Arnold basically wasn’t smart enough to be governor. His remarks, and especially his tone, were very patronizing.

That’s why I like Obama. I don’t care if he doesn’t have all the answers. I don’t care if he changes his mind in the face of new information. I don’t care if he admits he was wrong (would prefer that, in fact). I don’t even care if I don’t agree with some of his ideas/policies. I just want a president who I don’t feel is trying to do whatever it takes to get the job. Someone who’s honest with the American public. Someone genuine.