A more perfect Union

If you want to know why I want Barack Obama to be the next President of the United States, here it is.

I read the coverage of Barack Obama’s big speech on race and religion before I ever got to see it. For the most part, the chattering classes have strongly embraced it—editorials from The New York Times (“Mr Obama’s Profile in Courage”) to the Washington Post (“extraordinary”) to the Boston Globe (“starting a bold, uncomfortably honest conversation”) have all praised it as a refreshingly honest look at these issues. Even über-conservatives like Charles Murray loved it (“just plain flat-out brilliant”).

So I heard that it was phenomenal before I even had the chance to watch it myself. I finally did last night.

We all know that Obama is a great orator, and as much as people like Hillary Clinton like to pull a Karl Rove and try to make this into a weakness, the fact of the matter is he is an inspirational man who knows a thing or two about communicating. But not only does he know how to deliver a speech, he knows how to navigate complex issues that have historical inertia behind them, lay out an argument, and a well thought-out one, at that, and present a solution. (Isn’t that what we want in a president?)

This wasn’t a fiery stump speech; indeed, Obama was much different in demeanour, which is what the situation called for. He didn’t avoid uncomfortable situations, he hit them head on. He didn’t just seek to make controversy all go away and move on; he provided a bit of a “teaching moment” for America.

And he’s the right person to deliver that message, given his heritage. Talk about street cred: Here’s a guy who has a black father (from Africa, no less) and a white mother (from Kansas, no less) who was raised by white grandparents who had their own racial biases, who, as he put it, went to some of the finest schools in America and also lived in one of the poorest countries on earth. He knows this stuff first hand, and he’s a bit of America in microcosm. I think that’s why he’s uniquely qualified to talk about this stuff.

Take a look at the speech when you can. It’s long, around 30 minutes, but it’s absolutely brilliant.



And remember—Obama wrote this speech himself. Not his speechwriter, not his political consultants. Mofo stayed up two days writing this, showing only to a few aides before delivering it.

Think about that for a minute. For years we’ve been stuck with a president—not only one who can’t even speak English properly (that’s the easy insult), but one who is as incurious as Bush is, one who can’t be bothered with details (or even “facts”), who bragged that he didn’t read newspapers (as if that were a good thing), who rejects sound science and attempts to suppress it.

Won’t it be nice to have a president as intellectually brilliant, emotionally eloquent and historically learned like Barack Obama? Who doesn’t take a glib, black-and-white (no pun intended) view of a world that is nothing but shades of nuance and grey? Who doesn’t filter everything through the prism of his own biases and worldview, but looks at an issue on its merits, using reason and principle as his guide, before choosing a path?

I can’t wait.

I'm sailing away...

I feel weird today, and it’s because I couldn’t sleep last night. I don’t know why. But it feels a lot like jet lag, minus the frequent flyer points. But I almost fell on my face coming out of the tailor, where I was picking up some alterations. I’d go home, but I have meetings this afternoon.

Reader-friends will already be aware of this, but the big news is that the round-the-world holiday I was planning back in September is finally happening.

It’s essentially the same itinerary, although I’ll be going in late May and early June. The Ed Hoover World Tour 2008 will take me to such fine locales as:

• Honolulu
• Dallas/Fort Worth
• Washington, D.C.
• London
• Paris
• Amsterdam
• Hong Kong

The flights are booked; I’m ready to go. I just have to wait two months. So at that stage, look for some round-the-world blogging, as well as some hot new pictures of cool world locations.

Speaking of which, I’ve been meaning to start a photoblog (which probably won’t be as good as Tracy’s, but we all aspire to be as cool as Tracy) and get a bit more serious about selling my work (ahem), but I haven’t had the motivation.

But now I do, because yesterday I bought a new toy: a Canon Eos 5D digital SLR camera. Twelve-point-eight megapixels, baby. It’s coming from a magical place called New York City, and I hope it gets here before the long Easter weekend (that’s right, America, we get Good Friday and Easter Monday as public holidays!) so I can take it for a spin when I’m not belting out avant-garde notes at the Opera House. (That’ll be Saturday evening, for you Sydneysiders; get your tickets here.)

It should get here by then. I have to give a shout-out to B&H Photo Video, because they rock. I ordered something from them before Christmas and it got from New York to Sydney in three days flat. They haven’t shipped my camera yet (ahem, I just gave you free pub, kids), so I’m like my eight-year-old self when I ordered a whoopee cushion or something and had to Wait Six To Eight Weeks For Delivery.

So get ready—Ed’s kicking it up a notch.