I voted for Barack Obama in the primary. I had decided to vote for Hillary, but at the moment of truth, I thought of Terry McAuliffe and Mark Penn and I couldn't do it. I filled in the Obama bubble.
And as I left my polling place, I was surprisingly depressed.
I wanted my John Edwards back.
Now, I am watching Hillary giving a speech on C-SPAN. For the second time in this campaign, I am impressed with her.
I said I had decided to vote for her in the primary. What brought me to that decision was the last debate between her and Obama -- she simply had the chops, where he did not. This speech on C-SPAN is reminding me of that.
Exhibit A: She is better on health care. Her plan is practically a clone of Edwards's, and she will get everyone covered and the cost lowered. She speaks in specifics:
When we did Medicare we didn't leave any of our seniors out. . . . When Congress created the Federal Employee Health Benefit Plan, it decided to cover federal employees. If we open up that plan, it will give us a very large group of people that can essentially bargain for lower prices for everything from drugs to services. Part of the reason health insurance is so expensive, especially for small businesses, you don't have enough bargaining power, and that's just the way the health industry likes it.
How are we going to fight our way out of the miasma George W. Bush has pulled us down into? Barack Obama reminds us that yes, we can. Hillary Clinton tells us how, with specifics -- create a strategic energy fund by taking tax subsidies away from oil companies, putting that money to work toward clean, renewable energy.
And let's start investing smartly in our infrastructure with long term bond financing. Our competitors are, Europe and Asia. They're building airports, lightrail, mass transit. They intend to be at the forefront of the 21st century. I'm not ceding that ground to anybody.
She's sounding a little like John Edwards here, but she actually brings a bit more authority to the argument. As much as I loathe some of Hillary's advisors, I have to admit that she is highly competent.
This speech is actually pretty great -- and of course C-SPAN started having technical difficulties and stopped broadcasting it. But I'm going to be sure to catch the replay later.
Now, it's truly exciting to watch the current Great Awakening inspired by Barack Obama and to see all the young people coming alive in this campaign season. This is what saves me from the despair I tend to feel these days, watching my country slip into fascism. In my heart, I know we will be saved by the people Barack reaches with his beauty and his shining good vibrations and his Yes-We-Canapaloopa.
And I am reminded of something we used to talk about when I was a martial arts student, black belt excellence and white belt excellence. Black belt excellence is what we strive for: ultimate skill in body, mind, and spirit; experience; mindfulness; integrity; wisdom; humility coupled with dedication to service. It takes years of hard work to achieve black belt excellence.
White belt excellence is something any one of us has within us at all times. It is not something to be achieved, but something to be realized. It is willingness, the willingness to start on the road to greatness. It is not just realizing that yes, I can; it is coupling that awareness with Yes, I Will -- Yes, I Do.
White belt excellence is the desire for greatness that pulls us toward our goodness. Barack Obama wakes us up to our white belt excellence. We need white belt excellence or we have no future.
But I want the dojo run by a master, by black belt excellence, by one whose strength may not be so flashy, but who weathers storms and is here to serve. I know we need Barack Obama, and I am convinced we need Hillary Clinton too.