Speeches and Specifics

Bill Clinton, who I do not dislike, recently made a comment about Barack Obama’s generalizations, his speeches about hope and change. I am not going to rely on Bill Clinton to learn about Barack Obama or John Edwards to learn about Hillary Clinton or any Democrat to learn about any Republican and certainly vice versa. In fact, the most salient question to ask when one candidate undertakes to tell us about another candidate is, “Don’t you have anything you think is worth telling us about yourself?

A friend gave me a book, Speeches that Changed the World. Included are memorable speeches from Moses, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, John Kennedy, Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Nelson Mandela, and many others. These great speeches inspired first and then informed. So speeches are not about specific plans and strategies; candidates need them to inspire more than inform.

Anyone who wanted to know what is in the platforms of candidates should be able to go to their websites and read about their positions. In fact, I was very impressed with the detail and organization of Barack Obama’s position statements under the issues tab. . I always check to see what position a candidate takes on the Federal budget and was pleased by what I found here.

Of course, Hillary Clinton has also taken positions and they are fairly well-delineated at her website.

John Edwards may sound like a single-issue candidate in his speeches, but his website fleshes out his policy positions.

Since the others (Thompson, Willard Romney, Giuliani) are all lies and pandering, the only Republican websites you should look at are those of John McCain, because what he says there is probably the truth as he sees it and Ron Paul, because you may have forgotten what a real conservative looks like. I didn't include Huckabee because this country doesn't have a position for head priest/preacher.