Barack "Oballa"

Somehow I ended up in the "VIP" section at the Barack Obama rally in Eugene the other night. I was a volunteer that had nothing to do so they just stuck me in the VIP section. The secret service and guys with sniper rifles apparently didn't care that I had no sort of credentials around my neck.

Anyway, I wanted to talk about how refreshing it was to hear a presidential candidate talk about the problems with public education in America. Obama made it very clear that he wants all children to have an equal opportunity to attend college. He proposed an idea where students would get several thousand dollars of scholarship money per year by volunteering or working at various organizations such at a retirement center or a veterans hospital. He talked about how we need to make more of an investment in the education of our children by paying teachers more. Additionally, he talked about how parents shouldn't have to worry about their children growing up and being left at a disadvantage because people from another country had better educational opportunities.

Obama focused a lot on the current problems of Bush's campaign and the war in Iraq, but he did make it clear that he cares about education. He emphasized how the $500 billion spent on the war could build a lot of schools.

Obama is a great public speaker and probably got a lot of votes from college students as well as the general public in attendance.

And to keep this somehow basketball related, here is a youtube video of Obama playing basketball. He also said that if he were elected president, he'd have a basketball court added somewhere on the White house property.


Oregon Basketball Coach Ernie Kent presenting Barack Obama an Oregon jersey with the name "Obama" on it.