It certainly was an historic night. Barack Obama, standing outside on a warm summer night in Denver, accepting the nomination as the first-ever presidential candidate of African-American descent.
Obama’s oratory skills did not fail him. But the next morning, as I read the text of his speech, I came away strangely hungry. I was looking for kernels of economic insight or bold plans. I got pablum.
Heartless globalization came into play:
“This country is more generous than one where a man in Indiana has to pack up the equipment he’s worked on for twenty years and watch it shipped off to China, and then chokes up as he explains how he felt like a failure when he went home to tell his family the news. “
More same old, same old with John McCain:
“How else could he (McCain)propose hundreds of billions in tax breaks for big corporations and oil companies but not one penny of tax relief to more than one hundred million Americans? How else could he offer a health care plan that would actually tax people’s benefits, or an education plan that would do nothing to help families pay for college, or a plan that would privatize Social Security and gamble your retirement?
Plus lobbyists, always an easy target:”
“Change means a tax code that doesn’t reward the lobbyists who wrote it, but the American workers and small businesses who deserve it.”
Boosting small biz:
“I will eliminate capital gains taxes for the small businesses and the start-ups that will create the high-wage, high-tech jobs of tomorrow.”
Tax breaks for the rank and file:
“I will cut taxes – cut taxes – for 95% of all working families. Because in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle-class.”
Energy proposals:
“ . . . I will set a clear goal as President: in ten years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East. As President, I will tap our natural gas reserves, invest in clean coal technology, and find ways to safely harness nuclear power. I’ll help our auto companies re-tool, so that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built right here in America. I’ll make it easier for the American people to afford these new cars.”
And, he’s really green:“And I’ll invest 150 billion dollars over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy – wind power and solar power and the next generation of biofuels; an investment that will lead to new industries and five million new jobs that pay well and can’t ever be outsourced.”
But where are the specifics? How will he stop U.S. firms from uprooting their capital equipment and ship it and American jobs off to China? How will he rewrite corporate tax codes to avoid the lobbyist conundrum? What, specifically, will he do to help small tech start-ups? How will he end U.S. dependence on Middle Eastern oil? What clean coal technology is he talking about? How would he make nuclear power safer?
Don’t get me wrong. I like Obama. But at this stage in the game, I need more than “I Have a Dream” speeches.
