Barack Obama in Golden, CO: Overturning a Failed Economic Philosophy

Barack Obama addressed voters at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, CO today, asking that we elect him and break away from the failed economic philosophies which have resulted in the mortgage meltdown, Lehman's collapse, Merrill Lynch's buyout and a sharp Wall Street downturn. Obama successfully demonstrated in his Golden stump speech that while McCain might not be directly responsible for the Dow plummeting, the economic philosophy he subscribes to is. Summing up the aggressive policy of deregulation advocated by McCain's top economic advisor, Phil Gramm, Obama said, "This is what happens when you confuse the free market with a free license for special interests to take whatever they can get." Indeed, as Obama demonstrated, the anti-Government approach taken by Republicans leads not to a freer market, but to capitalism run amok. As a result, the market and the voters suffer.

This is the second time I've had the privilege of seeing Obama speak. The first occasion was on the best political day of my life, as I watched Obama accept the Democratic nomination for President at Invesco Field on the last day of the DNC. On that day I was a part of history; not simply because his acceptance came on the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, or because it was the first open-air convention acceptance speech since JFK, or even because Obama's speech was so uplifting, so powered by the conviction that we truly could be a better nation than the past 8 years. Obama's acceptance speech was historic because it was the first acceptance speech to truly reflect the politics of inclusion, a politics on which his campaign has been built.

It is a politics of inclusion that brought me to Invesco Field that day; I was there as a reward for the volunteering and community organizing (I promise you, Sarah Palin, it is hard work) I have been doing in my community. Like thousands of other volunteers of all ages, sexes, and races, the Obama campaign has given me not only the conviction that my voice matters, but to tools with which to let myself be heard. While Republicans may dismiss Obama's giant speech as a stunt, it was in reality a symbolic reflection of the open, democratic Obama campaign, a campaign that has brought thousands of people into the political process for the first time. Obama's story is our story. Not because we are all the product of a biracial marriage, a childhood in Hawaii and Indonesia and a background in constitutional law, but because his campaign allows us to take ownership and tell our own stories. The convention speech was simply a reflection of this inclusive nature.

Obama's speech in Golden today reminded us yet again of his politics of inclusion. Make no mistake, today's speech was a stump speech rather than a barnburner. The Colorado School of Mines' gymnasium fits less than 2,000, rather than the 80,000 plus at Invesco. Much of the speech was concerned with policy issues that will need to be chewed over and examined by journalists and economists of far greater renown than I.

And yet in some ways, it was almost a more powerful speech. It was a speech that reminded us that now, in this time of economic anxiety and extreme job losses, we are not alone. John McCain's economic philosophy may have failed and forgotten us, but Barack Obama's has not. McCain and Phil Gramm may limit their economic purview to Wall Street. Barack Obama, believing in the politics of inclusion, believes in an economic outlook that considers Wall Street, Main Street and every street in between.

The Golden speech brought home, once again, Obama's ability to look at a difficult, confusing and frightening world and identify the way in which the pieces fit together. "Drill baby drill," isn't just a bad energy policy, it's a philosophy that makes us less safe by increasing our long-term dependence on destructive fossil fuels and foreign governments. "Trickle-down economics," isn't just a bad economic policy, it's one that weakens us in the global economy. Extreme deregulation doesn't just hurt the free market, it hurts the taxpayers who have to foot the bill when a firm like Bear Sterns in bailed out.

Obama's approach to the economy is not anti-free market. Instead, it is a set of policies to correct the imbalances of the market and do what the market cannot. It includes investing in education today, so that we can compete in a globalized world tomorrow. It explores renewable energy today, to ensure that the leader in green economics tomorrow is the United States of America. It regulates the mortgage industry today, so that the meltdown we're seeing now does not occur again tomorrow.

In short, Obama's economic policy is one of inclusion. This is not to be confused with an economic policy of handouts. Instead it says to the beleaguered middle class: if you invest in your community and country today, we will invest in you tomorrow. If you save to buy a house today, we will make it so that you can buy one tomorrow. If we give you an education today, you will use it to boost the market tomorrow.

That is the politics of inclusion. It is founded on a simple notion: we are one country, and by helping our neighbor, we actually end up helping ourselves. Watching Obama speak today in Golden, I was reminded once again that this is what we are working so hard for: the belief that you should love thy neighbor as thyself.