Why
I Support Barack Obama for President
By
Whitney Tilson, WTilson@T2PartnersLLC.com, 9/21/08
(To
read my Obama blog, see: http://tilsononobama.blogspot.com)
I
am ardently supporting Barack Obama this election for three reasons:
1) I’m distressed about the state of our nation and the
direction it’s heading;
2) I believe Obama is an exceptional person who will
provide the steady, principled leadership and thoughtful change our country
(and the world) so desperately need right now; and
3) I’ve become increasingly disturbed by McCain’s views
and behavior, for many reasons outlined below.
I
think there’s near-universal agreement that our country is on wrong track – the
only question is: Which candidate is most likely to get us back on the right
track? I’m convinced that the answer is
Barack Obama.
My Views on Barack Obama
I
first met Barack Obama more than four years ago in June 2004, a few months
before he became a household name after his famous speech at the Democratic National Convention. (In fact, when my friend sent me an email
that day asking, “Would you like to come with me this evening to a fundraiser
for Barack Obama?”, I had no idea who he was or what office he was running for,
so I had to Google him!) But after
meeting him that night, I was so impressed that I went home and emailed my
friends the prediction that he’d be President someday.
Since
then, I’ve read both of Obama’s books, followed him closely, heard him speak
numerous times and had dinner with him, all of which reinforced my belief in
his character, wisdom and approach to the many problems we face.
I
think Obama:
1)
Is highly intelligent;
2)
Is a good
listener and thinker and makes good decisions (which is not the same as being
smart; see below);
3)
Has a fundamental
decency and empathy;
4)
Has high
integrity and is honest (with others and, more importantly, with himself);
5)
Quickly admits his
mistakes and fixes them;
6)
Is less beholden
to special interests than nearly any other politician;
7)
Has the courage
to say and do what he thinks is right;
8)
Is, at his core,
a moderate;
9)
Tries his best to
bring people together and appeal to common interests (and is very good at
this);
10) Is uniquely positioned to heal the racial divides in
this country (click here to read my answer to the question: “What percentage of
your support for Obama has to do with him being black?”);
11) Understands the enormous challenges facing our nation;
and
12) Has a sound approach to thinking about these problems.
Obama’s Age and Experience
The
single most common concern I hear from people who are considering voting for
Obama is that he is too young and/or inexperienced. Regarding the former, here are the facts: He
is now 46, and would be 47 when he takes office. That is a year older than Bill Clinton, four
years older than John F. Kennedy and five years older than Teddy Roosevelt when
they took office.
As
for his experience, I think it’s interesting to compare Obama’s to
McCain’s. Obama graduated from college
25 years ago (in 1983), only one year after McCain first went to
Obama’s
activities and achievements over the past 25 years have been exceptional. He:
·
Spent three years
as a community organizer as director of the Developing Communities Project
(DCP), a church-based community organization originally comprising eight
Catholic parishes on
·
Went to
·
Directed a voter
registration drive that registered 150,000 new voters
·
Taught
constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School for 12 years
·
Spent eight years
as a State Senator, representing a district with over 750,000 people
·
Was chairman of
the state Senate’s Health and Human Services committee
·
Spent four years
in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while
sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public
Works and Veteran’s Affairs committees
·
Ran an
extraordinarily effective primary campaign (arguably the most effective ever),
raising more money than anyone ever before, building a large team and
organization, and ultimately beating big odds and defeating a heavy favorite.
I
don’t know about you, but all that is pretty impressive to me!
Obama’s Decision-Making Process
The
one thing I know for sure is that the next four years are going to throw us a
lot of curveballs. Who, in their wildest
imagination, could have foreseen all of the unexpected twists and turns over
the past four years?
Dealing
with immensely complex issues like how best to pursue the war on terror and
what economic policies are best for our country require not only strong
principles and convictions but, equally importantly, a certain way of thinking
and making decisions – including, yes, occasionally changing decisions if they
prove to be flawed.
I’m
not much interested in which candidate is smarter, but I’m extremely interested
in how each of them thinks. To me, the
key questions were posed many years ago in this thoughtful Los Angeles Times editorial:
·
Does this man
think through his beliefs before they harden into unwavering principles?
·
Is he open to
countervailing evidence?
·
Does he test his
beliefs against new evidence and outside argument?
·
Does his
understanding of a subject go any deeper than the minimum amount needed for
public display?
·
Is he
intellectually curious?
·
Does he try to
reconcile his beliefs on one subject with his beliefs on another?”
Based
on everything I know about him, I think the answers to all of these questions,
as they relate to Obama, is an emphatic yes – and an almost-as-emphatic no for
McCain.
For
further details on Obama’s views and positions (and why I support them) on a
variety of issues such as foreign policy (especially Israel and Iraq), his
economic plan, tax policy, healthcare, the environment, ending our dependence
on oil, school reform and his overall worldview, see: www.tilsonfunds.com/Personal/Obama/Obamadetails.htm
My Concerns About
John McCain
At
one time I felt that if McCain won, it wouldn’t be so bad. Surely he’d be a big improvement over the
current Disaster-in-Chief, right? I
don’t believe this anymore, for five reasons:
1)
The more I hear McCain discuss the major issues of our day (the economy, taxes,
the appropriate role of government, foreign policy, healthcare, the
environment, ending our dependence on oil, etc.), the more convinced I am that
he has little grasp of these issues and has few sensible ideas to address them.
2)
As the economy spirals downward and hundreds of thousands of Americans lose
their homes every month, I see little
evidence that he genuinely understands or appreciates how much average
Americans are hurting. Being on Capitol
Hill for the past 26 years and having so much money that you can’t keep track
of how many houses you have will do that to you…
3)
I am sickened by the ugly turn his campaign has taken in the past few weeks,
resorting to the worst form of divisive politics: the lies and smears about
Obama wanting to teach sex ed
to kindergarteners (the dirtiest attack since the Willie Horton ads), the
“lipstick on a pig” nonsense, etc. I
believe these attacks show that McCain has been hijacked by the Karl Rove/Dick
Cheney element of his party – which will continue to hold sway should he become
President.
4)
The flip side of (maybe) being a maverick is that he often makes rushed, rash,
snap judgments based on his gut instincts.
This has long been a character flaw of his, but the haphazard process of
selecting Palin puts it front and center. I don’t think our country can endure another
eight years of a President who makes decisions like this.
5)
I used to think that McCain did, in fact, put “Country First”. But the recent dishonest and dishonorable
attacks on Obama and the Palin pick have led me to
conclude that he’s no better than the average politician, who would do anything
if it would improve his odds of winning the next election (including, in this
case, jeopardizing the future of his country).
The irony here is so vast: McCain makes the scurrilous accusation that
Obama is willing to lose a war to win the election, and then picks Palin, who even Republicans admit isn’t qualified to be
President (and consider this: one third
of all Vice Presidents have eventually become President).
Conclusion
I
think these are the critical questions in this election – and the answers all
point to supporting Obama:
·
Do you think the
·
Do you think
someone from the incumbent party who has spent his entire career on Capital
Hill is likely to be an agent of change?
·
Do the words
“President Sarah Palin” send a chill through your
spine?
·
Are you troubled
that low- and middle-income families in this country are hurting and struggling
just to maintain their standard of living?
·
Do you believe
the wealthiest 1.9% of American households need yet another tax cut, or do you
think our country would be better off if 95% of Americans get a tax cut?
·
Are you alarmed
that we have lost our moral stature in the world and that we are no longer as
admired and respected as we once were – and that this makes us less safe? Do you think the
·
Do you think we
need an energy policy that goes beyond “Drill, baby, drill”?
·
Do you believe
that an effective, efficient government is critical to our nation’s well being
to, for example, properly regulate mortgage and financial markets before they blow up and help citizens in
need (no more “heck of a job, Brownie”)?
·
Do you believe it
is a moral outrage that the richest nation in the world, alone among developed
countries, fails to provide basic healthcare to every citizen and instead
leaves 45 million people uninsured?
I
hope you’ll join me in supporting Barack Obama for President. There are many ways to do so, starting with
financial support, for which I’ve set up two special web sites:
·
For donations to
the Obama campaign ($2,300 max per person, $4,600/couple): http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/main/DFER
·
If you max out to
the Obama campaign, here’s the link for donations to the Democratic National Committee
($28,500 max per person): www.democrats.org/page/outreach/view/total/DFER
Thank
you!
Sincerely
yours,
Whitney
Tilson