The Obama Challange

Obama is better educated than me, no doubt has more friends on facebook, earns more money than me, is blacker than I am and crucially come February will have been President of the United States of America longer than I have.
He has two autobiographies published before he took office and has a bunch of kids. So what I'm saying here is that

this post isn't about me. It's about President Elect Barack Obama. Now throughout the lengthy primary and presidential campaigns I constantly heard about Obama's eloquence, yet never did I witness Obama being eloquent.
Well spoken, yes. Inspirational? Not really, at best he said things like Kevin Rudd, that were catching up to the tail end of progressive thinkers, that are neither remarkable nor rare.
I heard, faciously that the statement 'Obama is very eloquent' made by notables such as Hilary was actually thinly veiled racism with the unspoken end to that thought being '...for a black man'
Which is funny in the wrong way, particularly if there was any community more responsible for propelling the use of english to new heights, its the hip-hop producing artists of the late 80's and early 90's.
But there may be more truth to the statement 'Obama is eloquent, for a politician' because let's face it, success in politics has become the 'say nothing do nothing' formula.

When I switched onto the first presidential debate of McCain v Obama, I patiently sat for 45 minutes waiting for a fight to break out. It never did. If there was ever a piece of history not worth recording, it is that debate.
What a complete waste of time.
So maybe the answer is simply that Obama is eloquent, like My Chemical Romance is hard rock these days. Unimpressive to me, who is unimpressive to the masses, therefore impressive. Which isn't to say that I'm special, I think there are other people out there like me who feel nothing but disdain for the collapse of both hip-hop and alternative rock just as often as we've been burned by would be reformers that ended up being ringpieces like Kevin Rudd.

SO I thought I'd go check out wikiquote, that repository of eloquence, before I cast my vote on the Obama's speaking prowess, particularly since I saw a book that professes to teach me 'how to speak like Obama' something I personally wont buy because Obama doesn't drop the f or c bomb as often as I would even when it has no gramattical substance.
Anyway, I read through 2/3rds of the wikiquote entry before I thought, no. Not in the league of Abe Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, George Orwell, Eleanore Roosevelt, Arundhati Roy, Goerge Orwell, Mark Twain, Ulysses Grant etc. But then I thought, that's not fair, comparing him to people who lived through extraodinary times, and have retrospectively been bestowed greatness upon them. Particularly litarary figures who are not as accountable to a scrutinising public as Politicians on major party tickets are.

Except from the past come all benchmarks, example - In basketball Micheal Jordan is still the stick by which all greatness in basketball is measured, Phil Jackson for coaching, Shaq for big physical centers, Kareem for scoring dominance, Bill Russell for grabbing boards, Larry Bird for clutch shooting, Magic Johnson for passing game. Etc. Every rookie going through the league gets a following in proportion to their greatness measured against such yardsticks as Jordan and Johnson.

So take a rookie season in sport like Kevin Durant's 07-08 season and you'd say durant was a great player, Rookie of the Year in fact. Just like you might say Obama is head and shoulders in eloquence above the rest of the presidential contenders of the 08 election. But is that the standard that democracy and our leadership candidates are measured by?
Well let's look to basketball as always for the answer again, this years Rookie of the Year race is between OJ Mayo, Derrick Rose, Micheal Beasley and about two more all boasting better stats than Durant's rookie season. Derrick Rose declared on being drafted by Chicago that he didn't just want to be ROY. He was gunning for MVP. That is he wanted not just to be best of the inexperienced freshmen, but best of all the pros. Something that no doubt would have required a better rookie year than Magic, than Jordan, than Kareem, than Shaq.
That's what Obama should be gunning for, that's what they all should be gunning for being the best of all time, not just the best man/woman for the job.

My dad says that on election night Gough Whitlam was already making reform decisions, pulling troops out of Vietnam. And that that's the measure for reform. I see Obama being careful and pragmatic. Kevin Rudd is pragmatic. Politically pragmatic and actual pragmatic are also too very different jobs.
Remember that it is apparantly pragmatic to favor jobs in unsustainable resource and energy sector jobs over sustaining a habital biosphere on planet earth.

Anyway there is a fair comparison of Obama's eloquence - Ron Paul. Universally reviled presidential candidate. Also features on Wikiquote, let's make a comparison I call the 'Obama' challange. If Obama wins maybe I will permit myself an 'Audatios hope' that he may genuinly represent reform. But my default setting is unfortunately change I don't believe will ever happen.
Can you pick what is said by Obama and what is said by Ron Paul?

1. We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics who will only grow louder and more dissonant in the weeks to come. We've been asked to pause for a reality check. We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope. For when we have faced down impossible odds; when we've been told that we're not ready, or that we shouldn't try, or that we can't, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes we can.

2. Freedom is not defined by safety. Freedom is defined by the ability of citizens to live without government interference. Government cannot create a world without risks, nor would we really wish to live in such a fictional place. Only a totalitarian society would even claim absolute safety as a worthy ideal, because it would require total state control over its citizens’ lives. Liberty has meaning only if we still believe in it when terrible things happen and a false government security blanket beckons.

3. Racism is simply an ugly form of collectivism, the mindset that views humans strictly as members of groups rather than individuals. Racists believe that all individuals who share superficial physical characteristics are alike: as collectivists, racists think only in terms of groups. By encouraging Americans to adopt a group mentality, the advocates of so-called "diversity" actually perpetuate racism. Their obsession with racial group identity is inherently racist. The true antidote to racism is liberty.

4. No person, in any culture, likes to be bullied. No person likes living in fear because his or her ideas are different. Nobody likes being poor or hungry, and nobody likes to live under an economic system in which the fruits of his or her labor go perpetually unrewarded.

5. At times, American foreign policy has been farsighted, simultaneously serving our national interests, our ideals, and the interests of other nations. At other times American policies have been misguided, based on false assumptions that ignore the legitimate aspirations of other peoples, undermine our own credibility, and make for a more dangerous world.

6. The most important element of a free society, where individual rights are held in the highest esteem, is the rejection of the initiation of violence. All initiation of force is a violation of someone else's rights, whether initiated by an individual or the state, for the benefit of an individual or group of individuals, even if it's supposed to be for the benefit of another individual or group of individuals. Legitimate use of violence can only be that which is required in self-defense.

7. Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. ... Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.

8. You got these $10,000-a-plate dinners and Golden Circles Clubs. I think when the average voter looks at that, they rightly feel they're locked out of the process. They can't attend a $10,000 breakfast and they know that those who can are going to get the kind of access they can't imagine.

9. The constant refrain that bringing our troops home would demonstrate a lack of support for them must be one of the most amazing distortions ever foisted on the American public.

10. We have a lot of goodness in this country. And we should promote it, but never through the barrel of a gun. We should do it by setting good standards, motivating people and have them want to emulate us. But you can't enforce our goodness, like the neocons preach, with an armed force. It doesn't work.

Okay here's the answers, 1. BO 2. RP 3. RP 4. BO 5. BO 6. RP 7. RP 8. BO 9. RP 10. RP

SO there you go, seems that the Ron Paul was unfortunately born a republican and as such cannot ever be president.

The moral of the story is, that don't let yourself think you've elected Chuck D when infact you've elected Kevin Rudd. That's racist.

The moral for me, if somebody like obama can be described as a 'rockstar' and Gilbert Arena's get's his campaign slogan tattoed on his fingers then maybe I can get invited to Paolo's housewarming party even though he forbid me from attending because I'm too 'over 30' (I'm 25)