Obama's Oslo speech

I listened to a few minutes of Obama's speech in Oslo after receiving his Nobel peace prize. I came to a realization. He makes statements about what would happen in a perfect world "We do not have to think that human nature is perfect for us to still believe that the human condition can be perfected" . He makes statements about what must/should be done... “America cannot insist that others follow the rules of the road if we refuse to follow them ourselves,"
and makes bold poetic statements about general ideals and high standards that "we" should set for ourselves( whoever "we" is) "We lose ourselves when we compromise the very ideals we fight to defend" ... The common/non-analytic listener will make the assumption that all of these inspiring words are promises regarding the USA's actions in the future, and will applaud Obama's inspiring words and promising ambitions... and that is exactly what happened in after his Cairo speech addressing the Muslim world. But being the savy smart politician that he is , Obama is very careful not to make any promises ! As Robert Fisk ( British Correspondent in the middle east for 30 years- I love this man) recently said in small sound bite which surprisingly rose to the "popular" page on youtube :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4ynybVuwXQ
Among other things , he said Obama is too weak, and he is worse for the middle east than George Bush , because with Bush , we (esp. the middle east) knew what to expect.

Come to think of it, on a random thought, I remember just after 9/11 , I personally feared America would retaliate using nuclear weapons.... because Bush is that stupid! However, because Obama is a more reasonable/weak/smart man, whichever description pleases you, I wouldn't fear such an response by the American president if 9/11 happened today. Bill Maher ( a comedian and political commentator among other things), although generally supporter of Obama, and a "strong" critic of Bush, said that "Obama needs some Bush in him".. that was commenting on his (obama's) timid approach to pushing his healthcare bill through.

Today I have stopped becoming impressed by Obama's words , and have joined the army of skeptic intellectuals ( I hope I am intellectual) that I detest because they just stand on the side lines and analyze without giving any solutions. Don't get me wrong .. I am planning to jump back in very soon, maybe make a difference some day!

Democracy , just a thought

What bothers me most about politics is the fact that it doesn't depend on actual qualifications ( of a candidate for public office for example) but depends on the gutsy instinctive feeling or the "impression" people have of a candidate. This just explains why Sarah Palin is so popular. Don't get me wrong, its also why Barack Obama won.
Individual voters don't take their own votes too seriously, and therefore, neither do their candidates. This struck me when I was googleing "Why people like Sarah Palin", over the apparent frenzy caused by her book, and I got to this article published over a year ago :

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1001/p09s01-coop.html

Apparently she is not really knowledgeable, or doesn't care to show that she is... just like the millions of her lovers.
She is basically the middle character in a chic flick.... beautiful but down to earth; goofy but bullied by the evil elitist faceless media. They connect with her. I'm just trying to figure out why people like her so I can relieve myself of this heart ache every time I hear her talk.

Sigh. Democracy is far from perfect! Let me know if you can think of any alternatives.