Obama’s web site

Since he looks like a real contender now I wanted to see what Obama has to say on the issues, so I visited BarakObama.com to find out.

The first thing I discovered was you have to register to get past the landing page, but that was pretty easily defeated with false entries. Next came an in-your-face request for a donation.
At that point it felt like the web site of a pretty conventional politician, but it didn’t take much effort to find the meat. There is an “Issues” tab with a pull-down menu listing 19 topics, and those I read had reasonably specific outlines of what Obama would do if elected.

I found his ideas to be pretty mainstream for moderate to liberal-leaning people. There was nothing I found overtly objectionable, but nearly every action he proposes will cost something. That’s where the problem with Obama comes in for me. There seems to be a program for every interest group, but none of his ideas suggests the price tag, nor is there any hint of how we’re going to pay for all of them.

Obama claims to take nothing from “special interest groups” like drug or oil companies, but there are all types of special interests in this country, and some of them clearly have Obama’s ear.

I have to confess that digging into this policy stuff isn’t something I enjoy all that much, but now that I’ve started I guess I’ll take a look at the sites for the candidates who win in New Hampshire today.

Movies: Of all the big name movies I saw this year, The Kite Runner was easily the best. It’s so hard to make a movie that lives up to a book you really like, but this one did. The scenery (the movie was shot in China) was spectacular, it had two of the best kid actors ever, and it made me cry.