Faculty hosts forum on Barack Obama’s campaign
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Six Carnegie Mellon professors, along with Pittsburgh City Council President Doug Shields, sat down last Monday and discussed with students why they were supporting Democratic candidate Barack Obama in the upcoming election.
And though Doherty Hall 2210 is usually accustomed to larger crowds, the approximately 30 people in attendance mimicked memories of House Wars gone by, with a united front assuming Senator Obama’s iconic blue campaign colors, holding signs and wearing buttons depicting Obama’s name.
The speakers, too, were united in their political enthusiasm, but their reasons for supporting Obama differed.
“What impressed me with Obama is how he’s been able to mobilize young people,” said associate art professor Ayanah Moor.
The small audience agreed, nodding their heads and adding personal comments.
Associate history professor John Soluri commented on the significance of the Senator’s success so far.
“Everyone loves a winner,” he said. “It will be hard to overturn his current lead of delegates.”
Soluri’s comment referred to Obama’s current lead of 1396 delegates over Senator Hillary Clinton’s 1237 delegates, a difference of 160 delegates; 689 delegates remain undecided from future primaries, including 188 from Pennsylvania.
City council president Shields commented on Obama’s campaign contributions. “It’s no accident that Obama is gathering a million private contributions. Obama is the only one with a message saying ‘I’m thinking about you.’ ”
Continuing on the topic of funding, philosophy department faculty member Andy Norman said that what impressed him about Obama was “his refusing to take money from lobbyists.”
One of Obama’s campaign commercial’s echoes this point. “I don’t take money from oil companies or Washington lobbyists, and I won’t let them block change anymore,” Obama says in the commercial.
But that promise has recently been questioned by a USA Today article, which shows that employees of federal lobbying firms have given the Senator $2.26 million to date.
Regardless, the tone for the entire discussion was one of hope.
Lisa Hazirjian, an adjunct history professor and the forum’s stand-in moderator mentioned that she didn’t believe Obama’s recent comments regarding “bitter” rural Pennsylvanians would do much damage to his campaign.
“If Barack Obama becomes president, how other countries view the United States changes overnight,” Shields said. “Imagine if a kid in Africa were to wake up one day and see the ruler of the free world as a black man.”
MatthewZ
I hope the professors and the students who want Obama to be their president are ready to fix their "broken souls".
Obama the Savior
Speaking in February of the man she knows better than anyone else does, Michelle Obama said that her husband, Illinois Senator and candidate for the Democratic Presidential nomination Barack Obama, is the only candidate for president who understands that before America can solve its problems, Americans have to fix their “broken souls.”
She also said that her husband’s unique understanding of the state of souls of the American people makes him uniquely qualified to be President. Obama can do what his opponent in the Democratic race Senator Hillary Clinton, and Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, cannot do. He can heal his countrymen’s broken souls. He will redeem them.
But then, saving souls is hard work, and Mrs. Obama won’t place the whole burden on her husband. He’ll make the Americans work for him. As she put it, “Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your divisions. That you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zone. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed.”
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/04/obama_the_savior.html
It seems as though Obama wants to be Pastor-in-Chief, not Commander-in-Chief.
Yung
I'm curious why Professor Shields thinks only Obama could change impressions of America. What about a little girl in China that wakes up to see a WOMAN as head of the free world? Wouldn't that be a nice change?
As the article points out, Obama is a FRAUD
As to the wonderful response that dismissed all Barack Obama's negatives--Were you out of the COUNTRY when THE REV. WRIGHT story broke?? Because I know all you liberal elites savor your moral relativism with your morning lattes--but among real people...I should say...real WORKING people Rev. Wright and Rev. Meeks little hate romps are NOT going to play so well. Did you miss McCain's presumptive TV ad (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-QYIP7o2-A)
And, of course, Wright will be small potatoes indeed when the media starts doing their job and reporting on Obama's cousin? President Raila Odinga of Kenya.(it's not a good thing to campaign for your Kenyan cousin when his supporters torch churches burning people alive)--and APPARENTLY, (Who knew?) all that big HOO-LA if anybody called him a muslim? Well, turns out--he WAS A MUSLIM.
Golly, jeepers. Lots of folks in Montana and such like won't be too happy to hear about that.
http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Politics/12745.htm
http://www.barackobama.com/2007/03/06/obama_man_of_the_world.php
“Another Obama Pastor Under Fire for Racist Talk”
http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=59735”another
When professors of our colleges reduce themselves to;
favorably comment on the deceptive influence of the meaningless and most overused platitudes in history of a current candidate daring to use such as "change" on the most susceptible and unaware of us...
Casually remark on the sheer stupidity of 'following the herd mentality' is anywhere near acceptable instead of encouraging support based solely on honest capability...
Make an already proven false claim that a candidate refuses lobbyist funds when the evidence reveals over 2 million dollars collects interest for him due directly to lobbyist contributions AND where lobbyists are members of his own staff.
Attempt to mitigate the ramifications of blatant elitism...
Mindnumbingly offer that a message of socialism is anywhere near correct for a country founded upon freedom and self accountability OR have the audacity to continue on to drool that the pigment of a United States president's skin has anything at all to do with what has always been held as inherently right in the outrageous and racist implication past presidents have not been...
THEN, we know our children's instruction is in the hands of the insanely incompetent which means change is certainly in our near future but, not the socialist kind they have in mind.
Prepare yourself for change!
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