Meredith's Blog 8/24

Arriving yesterday was really exciting. After a long day of airports and busses, entering the enthusiastic political climate of downtown Denver was a perfect greeting. Obviously there was a lot of discussion about Obama's pick of Senator Biden for V.P., but for the most part it was just a huge display of support not only for the Obama/Biden ticket but for the Democratic Party and the notion of real change we need in this country. Upon arrival at the convention center, we attended the College Democrats of America elections. Since WKU unfortunately no longer has a CDA chapter, I was never able to be involved, and it became clear last night that it's a struggling association for the most part. There were several uncontested races, but I'll describe the one in which I found most interesting in terms of behavior of the delegations and voting. In the race for Programs Director of CDA, there were two contestants -- a sweet and charming young girl named Aartie and a more aggressive and seemingly pompous young man named Karl. In both the question and answer session and in their nomination speeches, Karl announced solid pinpointed plans to improve the association such as same-day registration and on-campus voting booths. Aartie's speech was mostly vague, explaining that she'd fight for average college values such as tuition costs and the environment, failing to provide real examples. In the end, she won in a landslide and from what I could find out, it was because most of the delegates didn't like Karl's personality. I voted for Karl despite his over-confident attitude because he told us exactly what he planned to do and those plans were things I personally support. Barack Obama's charisma and charm have helped him tremendously and allowed him to avoid or postpone actually presenting solid and specific plans to implement "change". I supported Hillary Clinton (as I supported Karl last night) despite her lack of charm, because she had plans I believed in, was clear in her policy and a take charge attitude. I often worry about the party because of the way we choose our nominees and seeing last night that CDA does it the same way was a bit discouraging. Charm usually is enough in the primaries, but I genuinely worry about Obama's ability to win a general election. All that being said, I fully back Barack Obama today and will do everything I can to get him elected in 72 days. I anticipate his speech this week at the convention, hoping he will answer the demands of Republicans and Democrats alike who support change but want to know exactly what that change means and how it will be implemented.