Prologue to a Blog

I started this blog on March 25, 2008 with the goal of raising awareness of Barack Obama. It seems redundant to try and make a name for a person who's already enjoying airtime on the mainstream news, often the top story, every day, due to the success of--and sometimes the controversies surrounding--Obama's campaign for president. And it is redundant. It's really redundant. There are plenty of other blogs out there that will more eloquently, passionately, and succinctly sum up the many excellent reasons that this man deserves your vote for president, and I hope you'll go read them. I'm sure I'll be linking to some of them before long. So in an age where competition for the superior product, especially political ones, is so cutthroat, why would I spend my time with a humble little blog to promote a man who is a stone's throw from the clinching the Democratic nomination for President?

The answer is a no-brainer: simply put, because I think it could make a difference. This blog is my small way to give air to the many reasons why myself and so many other Americans find Obama such a moving, motivating man. Before this current campaign season, my mind reels to think of a single political candidate in my lifetime, local or national, that would motivate me to think of a new reason, every single day, to make him or her worth voting for. Let alone making these reasons public. But from here on out, that's exactly what this blog will be doing. Every day, I'm going to post a new speech, video, quote, debate, or news item relating to the Senator, in the hopes that somebody will read it, consider it, and maybe get a little push in their own investigation for truth in what's going to be an undeniably hairy campaign season.

The content of this journal will be almost entirely constructed by the news media, or Obama himself, which makes it much easier for me to write. He proposes a noteworthy bill in the Senate, an article or gives another one of his trademark outstanding oratories, I'll post it here. One thing I am going to stray from as much as possible is any content that I deem to be full of hype, intentionally distorted facts, carries a strong partisan bias, or is overly critical of another politician. With most politicians, this sort of content would make for a very difficult search every day, but Barack has already made my work handy, even joyful. I despise the played-out name calling and retaliatory remarks of political campaigning as much as everybody else does, and I will screen all content prior to posting to make sure that this blog is free from this nonsense. I recognize that this goes on, but that doesn't mean its going to happen on here. Although I welcome any readers to contribute comments, including criticisms and counter arguments to any blog entry, I will ask them to make sure their own contributions stray from this mutually degrading pap as much as possible. Excepting a few recent slip-ups in the past six weeks or so, Obama's conduct on the campaign trail has been remarkably clean, a standard I intend on upholding for as long as this goes on. I also recognize the overwhelming hype that has circled around the Senator's campaign long before I got it into my head to start this meager blog, and I don't intend on contributing to any empty showmanship just to get his name out there, either. This is addressed in the next blog entry.

One final motive that I had in starting this blog is inspired by Obama in a more subtle way, but perhaps a more meaningful one. One of the most impressive aspects of the Obama campaign is the same one that is being overlooked by the mainstream media: the overwhelming power of the individual to get behind this candidate and make a difference in an immediate, localized fashion. It's a rare and inspiring opportunity for people to take action for a candidate, and to have their actions add up to the kind of change that can alter history for the better. I have no illusions about the potential success of this endeavor. If five of my close friends take the time to read this far, and continue reading future entries, then that's five people who have at least been exposed to the politics of Senator Obama and the good that he has to offer. If those five readers tell five friends, family members, or classmates about what they've seen or read, then that effectively encircles a wider community, spreading the awareness further as it goes. I'm not here to raise money for Obama, or even to necessarily convince you that he's the candidate worthy of your vote (though these would be welcome outcomes of the things posted here). All I'm trying to do is use my own voice to shed light on a man who New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson has precisely described as "a once-in-a-lifetime leader". I'm casting my vote for Obama this November, now let me tell you why...