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Obama Speech: ‘A More Perfect Union’

This speech, along with Obama’s campaign will go down in the history books. Recently Palin has taken to calling Obama un-American, which is a disgusting claim. Obama has sacrificed his life and his career to America. So has McCain. So has Palin. You can call any politician a lot of things, but un-American isn’t one of them. I don’t expect much from Palin but calling someone unamerican is pretty low.

If you haven’t listened to this speech in full, listen to it. Most of the press I see would like to focus this election not on the whole of America but on some over-pandered, over-represented, over-mediafied subset of America. That includes the “liberal elite” as well as “hockey moms” as well as “ the s” and all of the other demographic cutlets that our electorate is carved up into.

This speech may be about race but it isn’t about blacks, whites, latinos, or asians. It’s about America, as a nation. It’s about healing the deepest, most damaging divides, together. Sure, there may be a policy there you disagree with, but certainly the very fact that Palin can use codewords like “unamerican” to suggest that “Obama isn’t like me, and I don’t trust that” should make it clear that this is bad for everyone. Not just blacks and latinos, everyone. Why are white people scared of black people walking down the street at night, downtown even during the day, or in parking lots at night? Because this chasm is deep, getting deeper, and nobody wants to fix it.

So you can focus on the fact that Obama is black and not vote for him because of that. Being racist doesn’t fix itself overnight. But don’t lie to yourself or anyone else and say that Obama is un-American. And don’t think for a second that he Obama doesn’t understand race and racism and what “being un-American” really means. And don’t think for a second that it doesn’t hurt him, whites, blacks, and America.

If you’re racist, either in the closet or openly, Obama knows why you’re not voting for him. And that’s exactly what he hopes to change.

In the best interview ever, Palin talked about why she only just got a passport. Fast forward to exactly 1:00 in (after the ad).

Palin: I’m not one of those who maybe came from a background of, you know, kids who perhaps graduate college and their parents give them a passport and give them a backpack and say go off and travel the world.

No, I’ve worked all my life. In fact, I usually had two jobs all my life until I had kids. I was not a part of, I guess, that culture. The way that I have understood the world is through education, through books, through mediums that have provided me a lot of perspective on the world.

Let’s talk about the facts of what Palin did do for her education, according to sources including her wikipedia entry she left Alaska at 18 to go to school in Hawaii and dropped out. She went to school at a community college in Idaho next, and then dropped out again. Then she went to University of Idaho and quit again. Then she went to some tiny college in Alaska for one semester, then she went back to Idaho for 3 more semesters. Finally she graduated with a degree in Journalism.

Ok so you “didn’t come from a background who perhaps graduate college and the parents give them a passport and a backpack and tell them to travel the world”. Well neither did I. You’re a redneck from Alaska. I’m a redneck from Kentucky.

You’ve worked until you had kids. Well, between when you graduated and when you had kids, that was 2 years. Maybe you worked through college. To keep up with your travel expenses, you probably did. Well, so did I. 2 jobs? Poor thing. I’ve worked 3. And you had kids and then quit to raise them. Good family mom! So that gives you, what, 6 years of work? Well I’ve been working since I was 14. And I’m 26. That means I’ve been working 12 years, twice as long as you. And you were about my age (25) when you had your first kid.

And you spent time in Hawaii, but not out of the US for school. Well unlike you I wasn’t looking for some holiday when I made my education plans, so I went to England. While you were busy failing out of college in the Hawaiian sunshine, I was working my ass off in the famously absent English sunshine.

So again, why didn’t you have a passport? If you can see Russia from your house, why didn’t you ever go there? Or anywhere? Or read a newspaper? Or watch the news? When people want to be President so badly they usually put in the work, years of building experience. You haven’t put in any, and you want the 2nd most important job in the world.

You are not only unprepared to have anything to do with the United States government, you are one of the snobbiest rednecks I know. And I am one.