29 August 2008

Obama's Acceptance Speech

I guess that Barack Obama has finally clinched the nomination, something which I believed had occurred about three months ago. His acceptance speech is a doozy, though. I didn't get to see it delivered -- not having TV sucks like that -- but reading it brought tears to my eyes. Here is a man who knows how to work a crowd. If he is even a tenth the leader that he is a public speaker, he will be a president for the ages.

Major highlights: Improved commitments to cleaner energy (including nuclear! No one cares about nuclear these days...), improved funding for basic research, tax breaks to small businesses, and a few more. These are the primary issues to me, so I'm glad that at least one of the candidates is addressing them directly. Bush's presidency has been an unmitigated disaster for the NSF and funding for basic research. If the US is to remain competitive in research, this situation will need to be fixed. If it can be.

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