Blog about Leadership

On Thursday night, the US Senator from Illinois, Barack Obama, gave his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Committee convention and became the first black American to be the nominee for President from a major political party. You would have to be hiding under a rock to not have heard about this before – some 38 million people watched the speech on Thursday.

I wasn’t able to watch the speech as I was in the hospital with my father who has a tumor in the bile ducks of his liver; he was going through an outpatient procedure that turned in to a night in the hospital when he was in too much pain to go home. My father does not make a lot of money; he works hard, but he is fine. While he is not able to work at this time, he is covered by the short-term and long-term disability insurance provided by his company. At this time, he is still covered under the health insurance provided by his company. He is someone who got a skill set, found a decent job, and works hard to ensure he keeps his job. So when problems arise, he is able to make it through and this time will be not different than any other.

It is now Saturday around lunch time and I am at home watching Barack Obama’s speech on Youtube. I intend to watch all the speeches that were given this week, even though I know most of what will be said is rhetoric and designed as a promotional show for the DNC rather than anything of substance on the issues.

I can sum up my opinion of Barack Obama’s speech in one word – disappointing. Forty-five years after Martin Luther King Jr’s “I have a Dream” speech and the first viable, black American candidate for the Presidency gave a speech that was more divisive and focused on opposing John McCain rather than a message in the same spirit of that great leader from the civil rights movement who laid the way for Barack Obama to even stand a chance.

My general opinion of Barack Obama is more positive and optimistic than my opinion of the speech he gave, but perhaps that is the reason. I expected more from him.

To be fair and balanced, he is campaigning in a close and difficult race with John McCain, so I understand the necessity to clearly oppose the Republican candidate. In time, if Barack Obama wins the Presidency, we may experience the leadership that we expect from him, but Thursday night that leadership was not evident. All I experienced was the same, divisive tone of politics that we always get – which I found ironic for a candidate who touted “Change you can believe in” rather than “More of the same.”

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