"Barack Star"

I didn't come up with that play on words. I'm not that clever.

I should’ve written about this earlier, but I was too busy having an awesome weekend. And I’m sure you all were doing the same, so you wouldn’t have read this blog anyway. It’s a win-win situation.

Friday I went to the Barack Obama rally at ASU. Me and 6,000 other people. It could’ve been a claustrophobic girl’s worst nightmare, but luckily, I found a shady place outside the enclosed fence with some outspoken retired Democrats who all felt the need to give me pieces of their minds. I’m not complaining; most of the older people I know are Republican, so it was enlightening. But that is all beside the point.

Prior to attending the rally, Barack Obama would maybe be in my top five picks for president. Who my number one is, I don’t even know. Every time I pick a favorite, that candidate does something or says something I don’t like. This was also the first political rally I’d ever been to. I find it important to mention both of these things because it makes me biased toward the success of the rally and of Obama. I thought he was great; he talked about his optimistic plans for healthcare, education, reduction of CO2 emissions and a roundabout “solution” to problems of immigration reform. He did some substantial Bush-bashing; as seems to be the recent trend, and told us of his plans for an abrupt end to the Iraq war that would commence after his inauguration. Though I might not have agreed with a lot of what he said or many of his views, I appreciated the way he gave his opinions. His sense of humor was great, he cracked a few jokes about his distant cousin, Dick Cheney (called him the “black sheep” of the family), and for someone traveling around the country with the sole purpose of persuading the American people of his greatness, he was quite humble and personable. And yeah, I know he gives the same speech at all his rallies and his speech-writers probably were writing for that desired effect, but I was still impressed. Here is an article that offers more background info on Obama.

Well, that’s enough about me. I talked with a junior at the rally about his political views and how he has come to develop them. He is a religious studies major at ASU who defines himself as the typical Democrat. Mrs. Clinton isn’t really his cup of tea, and he shares many of the same views as Obama; so he was very excited to hear Obama accepted the university’s offer for a rally. He also believes that the youth Obama provides is something the White House needs. He mentioned this interesting article as a comment on the race issues Obama faces as a candidate. (Is that convenient or what? I think this is the one he was talking about anyway…) While he claimed to enjoy the rally, and the intriguing commentary provided by the aforementioned retired Democrat crowd, he stressed the importance of each person reading up on the candidates for themselves. He says he keeps up with the candidates by searching them on Google and reading the articles that look interesting. “Just coming to this rally doesn’t give a good picture of Obama, and I bet there’s tons of kids here who only came because they think it’s cool and have no idea what’s going on.” I couldn’t have said it better myself. Stories are everywhere; literally a few clicks away thanks to blogs and online newspapers. It’s good to know that other students are out there taking advantage of the abundant media resources.

I also plan on writing about the incident with Ron Paul supporters in a later blog. I have to milk this subject for all it’s worth.

This blog took forever. I know I shouldn’t try to write with the TV on, but it’s Comedy Central’s fault for showing Joe Dirt and Super Troopers back to back. How am I supposed to get anything done?