POV: Speeches from Barack Obama, so the POV is Barack himself
Bias: Neutral, its a primary source
Reason for Source: The biggest appeal for this book to me was that it is a primary source. You can't get much better than that.
Health Care: Obama proposes a health care system for all American's by the end of his first term. His full plan is laid out in great detail on his site and frankly its over my head. Perhaps I'll make a health plan post where I make an effort to understand this stuff and compare and contrast different plans.
Iraq War: In a speech he gave in 2002 Barack Obama refers to the Iraq War as a "Dumb War." He is in favor of a partial calculated withdrawal of a American troops and seeking aid from neighboring countries to help hold Iraq. This calculated withdrawal should be as much a schedule for us as it should be one for Iraq and a driving factor to get their own country in order. Obama then says we should use the freed miliatary resources to turn our attention on the Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran and Syria to stop their oppression or dedication to terrorism.
Economy & Budget: Finding text on Obama's financial plan was a bit difficult. I'm basing this section on an article from breitbart.com which doesn't appear to be too fond of Obama. I would agree though that Obama's campaign seems a little vague on this subject (as I previously expressed my difficulty finding any material on this subject). Anyways, heres a quote from the site that has some good info.
Obama's plan was short on some specifics. But he said he would give 150 million workers a $500 payroll tax credit, expand relief on mortgage interest, eliminate income taxes for seniors making less than $50,000 and simplify returns so millions can file in less than five minutes.
[...]he spent just one minute skimming over how he would pay for it and neither he nor his campaign provided a breakdown of the revenue his plan would raise.
Environment: In a speech he gave in April 2006 at The Newspaper Association of America Obama gave his pledge to help us achieve energy independence from the middle east. President Bush has given us a proposal that, "would reduce our oil imports by 4.5 million barrels per day by 2025." Obama thinks we can do better and make it 7.5 million barrels per day by 2025. While I couldn't find this information on his website, there is plenty of text on his energy reform ideas. I have a feeling the policy is in there, and they just changed the units and possibly omitted or changed the timeline.
Globalization: Obama seems to have two main focuses on Globalization. The first way is his focus in the middle east (see the Iraq War section above), and the second is he would like for us to focus on our economic ties with Africa. The following was taken from a speech he gave at the University of Nairobi in Kenya.
As a Senator from the United States, I believe that my country, and other nations, have an obligation and self-interest in being full partners with Kenya and with Africa. And, I will do my part to shape an intelligent foreign policy that promotes peace and prosperity. A foreign policy that gives hope and opportunity to the people of this great continent.
Abortion: Obama is pro-choice and strongly believes in potential for stem cell research to do amazing things in terms of advancing health care. There's a whole speech on it here for those interested in a well articulated version of answering "yes" on this issue.
Immigration: Obama's immigration reform seems focused not on the fences, but incentives for illegal immigrants to step over the boarder. By implementing a new fool proof way for employers to easily determine if the person is a citizen or not. His focus seems to be aimed at, "making it fair to legal workers and tougher on employers."
Education: Obama does a great job laying out his plan for national education reform in his speech at the Center For American Progress in 2005. Generally speaking his plan is to take volunteering school districts and in each one will apply an innovative new curriculum in place of their current teaching plans and student progress will be measured. Achievement will be rewarded in schools that succeed "and shut down those that don't." (see above link for source)
Civil Rights: Barack Obama's main campaign focus (next to Iraq) is focused on this issue. Many other points are tackled from a civil rights point of view. Education is tackled by our our need to reform schools in poor areas. Budget seems focused on giving breaks to the working class. As far as I'm concerned if Civil Rights and Poverty are your focus, then Obama is your candidate.
Other Notables: Obama is a Christian. As there is some suspicion that Obama is actually a Muslim (and I will admit I thought he was as well, but have since edited this section of the post) I'll turn to a primary source that indicates differently. It's a recording of a speech on this subject, it is fairly lengthy and if you prefer the text of the speech can be found here.
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/faith/
Personal Opinion (section to extract my emotional commentary out of the above as best as I can): There were two things that drastically turned me off from Obama. Those are his education plan and his foreign policy. As I read the above linked speech on his education reform plan I was fairly impressed at first until I got to the following part quoted about shutting down schools that don't produce positive results in his test. I really had to say "WTF?" It seems to me that any sort of education reform that involves shutting down schools is more like education deconstructionn than reform. Honestly though the part that really confuses me is that his entire plan seems like it would work fine if it weren't for the part about shutting down schools. It doesn't seem like a crucial part of his plan, which makes me wonder why he thought it would be necessary to include it.
As for his foriegn policy, I agree having a timetable for the removal of troops. Frankly I find it hard to believe anyone wants to keep American's sons stationed in Iraq from now till God knows when. What does bug me are his plans at futuring the war on terror. His plans to shift focus to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran and Syria seem to be lacking one thing. Why does no one seem to remember about Afganistan? As far as anyone can guess, Osama Bin Laden is either Elivis or Michael Jackson. Meaning that respectively he is either honestly dead yet everyone keeps seeing him popup at their local Burger King (read local Burger King as dark cave reaking of man sex) or alternatively the man that everyone just assumes is dead by now, partly because he looks like death but then publishes another video and everyone goes "Oh crap, why won't you just die?!"
To digress, Obama's furthering of the war on terror honestly makes it almost sound like he's reading a page from Bush's own war plans (except Obama would probably be a bit more equiped to carry it out).
Ultimately, I think Obama is a good candidate, but the fact that he seems so fixated on civil rights and poverty and his education and foriegn policy plans seems to far off that I think he would probably make an excellent Vice President. This way he would probably have the power to head a plans that would improve the working class in America, but would force his power to buffered by the President. So things like education and warfare could fall into someone else's hands. As things are right now that person seemingly could only be Clinton, but we'll see what I think of her when I get there.
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