During the Obama fundraiser, which Ian and I recently attended, Obama gave a short but powerful speech. He covered a lot of issues including universal health care, education, and the war in Iraq. His underlying theme throughout the speech was the American people are more united then the media portrays us. And that with good leadership and common sense policies, America will be able to restore its former greatness. Here are some excerpts from his speech that stood out:

"We are not as divided as the pundits and the cable chatter fests would have us believe. The lines that have been drawn in many ways are artificial. They are a product of our politics as much as they are reflective of real divisions in this country."

"We cant have a politics that is small and timid and based on who's up and who's down, and who's in power and who's not. Because that approach to our politics, that very narrow self interested approach to politics, is not sufficient to meet the challenges that are big and longstanding "

"If we increased fuel efficiency on cars to 40-45 mpg we would have to import zero oil from the middle east. None."

"There is a sense that whats happened in this country has not simply been bad policy but that we have betrayed our truer selves"

Overall the speech gave me hope. (which seems to be one of Obama's main pilers in his campaign.) It also helped cement my belief that Barack would most likely make a good president. However, it did not convince me that he is our best candidate. What Obama has been missing lately is the fiery passion and ability to transcend politics that he exhibited during the democratic convention and earlier speeches. More on Obama to come...