Thursday, April 24, 2008

This Is Your Brain On Hope

Courtesy of Tod Goldberg, here's an entry in MoveOn.org's "Obama in 30 Seconds" ad contest:



Another one, even better IMHO, is here. (warning: it plays automatically)

Note: I changed it from embedded to a link because I can't figure out how to make it not play automatically, which some people understandably find annoying. I know I do.

I personally love this ad. it's the best answer I've seen to the naysayers. Because, really, since when IS hope a bad thing?

If you'd like to vote for it, go here.

8 comments:

Jim Hetley said...

Dusty, that comes up with an auto-play that starts music, etc, as soon as the page loads. Somewhat startling, and annoying.

Unknown said...

Dusty,

It's a cute ad, no doubt.

However, I have not yet found a reason to really *like* Obama (as opposed to just considering him the by-far-least-objectionable of the 3).

Every time, and I mean EVERY time I think about him, the phrase that comes to mind is "slick willy" (and I do NOT mean that as it applied to Bill in any sense)

I am uncomfortable with him.

No, hope is NOT a bad thing .. if you have it.

Phoebe Fay said...

That's a great ad. I totally cracked up at the last line!

Howie, you want concrete reasons to like Obama? Here's one of my biggest reasons. He believes in transparency in government, and he puts his vote where his mouth is on the subject. He got the "Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act" passed, a bill he co-sponsored with Republican Tom Coburn.

That's just one example of real action and real legislation he's passed. There are many more, but I don't want to take over Dusty's entire comments section.

I'll also tell you what first made me an Obama supporter. I read The Audacity of Hope and was incredibly impressed at how intelligent and reflective he is. Obama truly thinks about the entire structure of government and the philosophy of what a government can and should do. Whereas other politicians only seem to think about the next election, he really does think about the big picture. Granted, sometimes he has to do things out of political expediency, but when he does, he's very aware of what he's doing and what the trade-offs are. He doesn't do it in the knee-jerk way that most politicians do, and he's constantly bringing the conversation back to that big picture.

All right, I'll shut up now. I just want to put out that there are very solid reasons to support him beyond just "hope."

But hope is still a good thing.

FerfeLaBat said...

That is a very cute ad but I have guilt now because I ate chicken for lunch.

pattinase (abbott) said...

I looked at a million of them on Move On and that was the best.

Jim Hetley said...

Thanks for changing to a link. The worst annoyance was with the LiveJournal feed, which ran that ad whenever you visited your LiveJournal "friends" page...

Unknown said...

I check voting records.

I swore not to vote for ANYONE who voted in favor of the PATRIOT act or any of its extensions.

That safer keeps me from McCain (of course, I work for Boeing .. I'd hate him regardless) and Hillary.

Mr.O didn't vote for the act (he wasn't in Congress then).

He has voted for at least some of the extensions or related acts.

That gives him black marks for me.

When I was in college (at U.FL), Florida passed the "Government in the Sunshine Act", a predecessor I believe to the Freedom-of-Information act. I don't know that "transparency" in gov't means diddly if it ain't enforced.

So Obama has written these cheerful books. So What!! So have so many politicians in recent years, I could build a house from them.

I have NO reason to believe that he can make good on the rhetoric.

Who's his VP going to be? The VP is the guy who has to push the Pres' plans thru Congress.

I *liked* Jimmy Carter when he was President. I still like him. He made nice noises, too. He was ineffectual as a glass hammer.

Convince me!!!!!

JD Rhoades said...

Howie: this is the moment I became n Obama supporter, even though it took me a while to admit it:

...alongside our famous individualism, there's another ingredient in the American saga, a belief that we are all connected as one people.

If there's a child on the south side of Chicago who can't read, that matters to me, even if it's not my child.

If there's a senior citizen somewhere who can't pay for their prescription and having to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it's not my grandparent.

If there's an Arab-American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties.

It is that fundamental belief -- it is that fundamental belief -- I am my brother's keeper, I am my sisters' keeper -- that makes this country work.

It's what allows us to pursue our individual dreams, yet still come together as a single American family: "E pluribus unum," out of many, one.

Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters and negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes.

Well, I say to them tonight, there's not a liberal America and a conservative America; there's the United States of America.

There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America.

The pundits, the pundits like to slice and dice our country into red states and blue States: red states for Republicans, blue States for Democrats. But I've got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the blue states, and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the red states.

We coach little league in the blue states and, yes, we've got some gay friends in the red states.

There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq, and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq.

We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.

In the end, that's what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism, or do we participate in a politics of hope?


Now, you may say that's short on specifi8cs, and you'd be right.

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" was short on specifics.

"We shall fight them on the beaches...we shall never surrender" was short on specifics.

I think that one job of a President, one of the things that's been sorely lacking, is the ability to inspire. To lead. To make us want to be better people, as well as better Americans. In a time of fear and division, that's what we need more than a speech about a five point plan (and, if you want specific plans, Obama has plenty of them on his website).

No one else is talking about unity. No one else is trying to talk about treating each other differently. Not only is no one else talking about hope, the other candidates are jeering it.

I've said this before, but the real central front in the War on Terror is the American mind. If we end up fearful and suspicious of one another, like the current power structure--Republican AND Democrat-- has been trying to make us do, then the bad guys really do win.

The past eight years have been one long capitulation to fear.

Hope is our secret weapon.