Anyone been following the political scene lately?
This is probably the first presidential election that I have followed so closely, especially with so many historical moments from the Hillary/Obama primary battle through last week’s Democratic convention and the announcement of Sarah Palin as McCain’s VP pick…I’m sure there will be more to come.
After listening to Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, and all the pundits, we finally were able to watch Barack Obama’s speech Thursday night. It was pretty unbelievable – how often do you see 80,000 people listening to a political speech – kinda had the feeling of a rock concert. As a speech teacher I was especially intrigued; I wanted to see if it was going to live up to the hype. It was a great speech…started to lose my interest with his recitation of policy promises…but he had charisma and pyrotechnics on his side. I didn’t think there were any “Ask not what your country can do for you…” type of moments, but just the setting and context were powerful.
Sarah Palin was the other surprise this weekend – first Hillary and now Sarah – hooray for women! They have been talking a lot about cracking the glass ceiling; wouldn’t it be amazing to have it smashed open at such a high level? Awesome. Ben came home on Friday and said that after hearing her background he thought, “That could be Rachel!” Talk about a Mom who is going places! I can’t say that I have any political aspirations, but looking at it from the perspective that women shouldn’t be shut out of any opportunity, it is exciting.
So, whatever way the election goes, it will be a historical accomplishment. Personally, I’m rooting for the McCain/Palin ticket, but hey, we’ll see…
