Tag: Barack Obama

Fact checking the speeches

So, you’ve heard the candidates speeches, maybe they inspired you. Maybe they didn’t.

But what about the facts? How accurate were those zingers the candidates threw out at their opponents?

Obama’s speech fact checked.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama accepted his party’s nomination Aug. 28, speaking before more than 84,000 people in Denver’s Mile High football stadium. Some of his comments were worthy of a ref’s yellow flag.

McCain’s speech fact checked.

Sen. John McCain’s acceptance speech to the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul on Sept. 4 was couched more in generalities than in specifics, offering fewer factual claims to check than we found in other speeches to the gathering. But we found some instances where the nominee strained the truth.

related ::

factcheck.org
SSL :: election quandry
SSL :: questions that won’t be asked about iraq
SSL :: mccain”s acceptance speech
SSL :: be consistent or else

Election quandry

Votehelp.org “analyzed” my political viewpoints and presented an interesting stat.

Barack Obama agrees with me 87% of the time.
John McCain agrees with me 81% of the time.

I’m sure those statements could be twisted in all sorts of ways – but makes me realize even more so how both of these candidates have gotten to where they are by “pandering” or appealing to the broadest number of people.

I don’t know that we could have someone who’s on the extreme left or right win their party’s nomination these days – unless its an outside party like the Green Party, Constitutional Party or some mix in between.

Typically in recent months/years the political survey’s I’ve taken have put me pretty close to dead center or more towards a Libertarian view of politics. So – does that mean these candidates would score the same 😉 or are we different/similar on enough different/similar issues that I got these comparison stats?

Guess I’ll have to wait and see what Ron Paul’s announcement is later today.

McCain’s acceptance speech


(word cloud of mccain’s speech)

Didn’t watch McCain’s speech last night. Figured there’d be nothing new he’d say — figured it would be more of the same “I was a POW” stories that I keep hearing over and over and over again — especially from other folks at the GOP convention.

Don’t know if he tells it as much as I hear it — but I hear it a lot. Makes me wonder if he’s done much of anything since then.

Either way (as I expected) there was plenty of coverage from various talking heads this morning.
I tried to skip most of that and tuned into C-SPAN for a while and then listened to coverage on NPR this morning.

Great coverage by both.

Here are some links and stories I found helpful ::

NPR :: the week that launched the mccain-palin ticket
NPR :: mccain challenges obama, GOP To ‘change’
NPR :: mccain eases convention attendees’ skepticism
NPR :: mccain vows to reach across party lines
C-SPAN :: mccain bio video
C-SPAN :: palin’s acceptance speech
word cloud analysis of 2008 rnc
word cloud analysis of 2008 dnc

I haven’t listened to the whole speech yet but I’ve skimmed it. Will read it all a bit later. You can too.

Read it or listen to it.

I think if either candidate lives up to their promises as president we could see some great changes coming to America. The problem is that both candidates would be forced to work within the same system of checks and balances that all presidents face. And in reality, the President doesn’t make the laws – they simply sign of veto them.

What are your thoughts?


(word cloud of obama’s speech)

Lingering Questions

Tripp Fuller shared a great thought today via his blog:

Listening to both parties each night has made me confident that the church really needs to quit outsourcing its vocation.

Makes a world of sense to me. Seems like the less the church does, the more the government feels it needs to step in to care for people. I can agree with much of the Democratic view of things because they see the need to step in and help the helpless. Yet, I still have to question if that’s really the government’s role. If the church really did their job, I think we’d be a lot closer to solving the world’s problems – than depending on the American Government to do so.

Kevin Hendricks and I seem to be asking some of the same questions as well and trying to decide how someone who claims to be a follower of Christ also claim to put country first. Seems backwards to me.

Tripp also shares several questions raised by Warren Carter (who is on the Homebrewed Christianity podcast last week – with part 2 to be posted this week):

Here are Carter’s questions:

What does it mean to be…..

  • rich Christians in an age of hunger?
  • well fed Christians in an age of poverty?
  • vacation-homed Christians in an age of homelessness?
  • overclothed Christians in an age of nakedness?
  • highly entertained Christians in an age of militaristic violence?
  • Sermon-on-the-Mount-shaped Christians in our age of empire?

Finally, thought this was an interesting contradiction in Sara Palin’s speech last night…

First she rips on Obama because “Al Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America … he’s worried that someone won’t read them their rights?”

Then she applauds John McCain because “To the most powerful office on earth, he would bring the compassion that comes from having once been powerless … the wisdom that comes even to the captives, by the grace of God.”

Got answers? The world is listening.

related ::
tripp fuller :: preaching the sermon on the mount and some more substantive lingering questions
barack obama’s acceptance speech
sara palin’s RNC convention speech
kevin hendricks :: country first
SSL :: question for today

Question for today

Posted this question on Twitter today and my other social networks.
Figured I’d post it here (without the 140 character limit) and see what response I get.

question :: Two men are running for president of the United States. Both men claim to be strong Christians and/or followers of Chirst. Can you trust that claim, if they also claim to put country before God?

See the image above and this quote from Obama’s speech last night:

“So I’ve got news for you, John McCain. We all put our country first.”

Then he told them what they could expect for themselves: “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat—I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? If any of you is embarrassed with me and the way I’m leading you, know that the Son of Man will be far more embarrassed with you when he arrives in all his splendor in company with the Father and the holy angels. This isn’t, you realize, pie in the sky by and by. Some who have taken their stand right here are going to see it happen, see with their own eyes the kingdom of God.” – Luke 9:23-27