Portland, OR

I don’t think I am going out on a limb by saying that Portland is a rather liberal town. When Barack Obama was here last time, he drew a massive crowd of nearly 75,000, so yeah, I think it is safe to say that Obama will be the choice for many Portland voters come this November. To put that in perspective, the recent crowd at the Democratic National Convention for Obama’s acceptance speech was around 80,000.

That said, I would like to discuss the current climate in Presidential politics this day after the final day of the Republican National Convention. I am not going to bring up Governnor Sarah Palin, who frankly scares the sh*t out of me. At least, I won’t bring her up today. Instead, I would like to point out some of the odd things brought up by Senator McCain during his acceptance speech.

I know this really isn’t “about Portland,” per se, but I think that anyone who would be reading this little blog may be a person who is interested in politics and specifically, veering off the road to ruin that our great nation has been on for the last 8 years. Besides, we all know that there is no way in heck that McCain will be campaigning in Portland. Portland isn’t called “Little Beirut” by Republicans from as far back as Reagan for no reason.

Did it bother anyone else out there that McCain’s solution to education was simply to allow parents to choose a better school for their kids? So that effectively does nothing to remedy the current educational crisis that the United States is facing, and don’t kid yourself, it is a crisis. I am not being melodramatic in that choice of word. Instead of addressing the problem of bad schools, just don’t go to them any more. Wow, why didn’t we think of that before?

Here is exactly what he said:

When a public school fails to meet its obligations to students, parent — when it fails to meet its obligations to students, parents deserve a choice in the education of their children. And I intend to give it to them.

Some may choose a better public school. Some may choose a private one. Many will choose a charter school. But they will have the choice, and their children will have that opportunity.

Yep, nothing about making our educational system better as a whole…just go to a charter school. Or a private school. Guess what? Parents already have that choice. Next issue.

Also, what in the world was he talking about when he was saying that workers could be supported by the government covering the pay difference during re-training?

We will prepare them for the jobs of day — of today. We will use our community colleges to help train people for new opportunities in their communities.

For workers in industries — for workers in industries that have been hard-hit, we’ll help make up part of the difference in wages between their old job and a temporary, lower paid one, while they receive re-training that will help them find secure new employment at a decent wage.

What temporary, lower-paid jobs? And no offence, Mr. McCain, but I want a leader who sets their sites a little higher than a community college education for our citizens. Not that a CC education is bad, but why not make it easier for everyone to receive a full four-year degree?

Sorry to be a little off-topic from Portland proper, but we are a politically active city, and a well-informed one at that. To live in Portland is to be political. And we wouldn’t have it any other way…

Transcript of McCain’s speech courtesy of CNN.

Portland, Barack Obama, Democratic National Convention, Republican National Convention, Sarah Palin, John McCain, Reagan, McCain acceptance speech, Little Beirut, education, college, community college, United States, employment, jobs, school, public school, private school, charter school