Just interested to know some reactions to Obama's nomination speech last night...

Can't tell you about that, but Big Brother was good last night.

Same here, I can barely understand politics in my own country, let alone what politicians say or do in others, sorry :-(

I didn't hear his speech but I think he's lovely! I really like him for some reason he just seems so well-spoken and kind and everything... haha wouldn't be hard to be 'well-spoken' in comparison to George Bush though!

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Grrrrr my post didn't go through - but then the PM function appeared...whoo!

Getting back to Obama...

Was he at the Pantheon? :p That stage setting was a little gauche.

He says he'll eliminate US dependence on middle-eastern oil in 10 years....yeah right (unless he plans to invade Canada). He talks the talk, but his actual policies seem lacking. However, if I were an American I would definitely support Barack because of his long-term anti-war and pro-gay marriage stance.

I wish Al Gore would shut up - he managed to plug 'inconvenient truth' into his speech again.

This election is surely a one-horse race for Barack? My only worry is that America is a still far too racist for a black president.

Grrr Al Gore...

To clarify: that's a 'grrrr he's annoying', not like a 'grrr easy tiger' kinda way.

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Great speech, he is a good speaker anyway, not too sure about election promises-all the candidates do these but in reality its too hard to achieve them. Overall, I would like to see him as president of US than McCain anyday.

Given McCain's choice of VP - I think Obama has the election in the bag!

What made me laugh is the idea that women will suddenly switch to McCain cos he chose a woman as a running mate. Do they think we're that easily swayed? She may be female but she doesn't strike me as someone who would improve conditions for women.

I am not sure how much the choice of a VP sways voters, I think I have read that despite all the hype, its not much, and many Americans do not even know the name of the current VP at any given point in time! I think its a very interesting election, nonetheless, with the first African American candidate from one of the two major parties, and a woman VP candidate in the other major party--has there been a woman VP candidate before this from the Dems or Reps? I think maybe Geraldine Ferraro??!!! At any rate, interesting politics,with the question of course how close will the election be, and in whose favor? I think that the recent close elections speak to the need to get rid of the Electoral College once and for all, and have one vote/one person for this office. Instead the electoral college apportions votes based on the majority win for a single party from a state, based on population of the state, so a large state has more electoral college votes than a small state, and if you vote, say Democratic but your state goes majority Republican, well, there goes your vote. The Electoral College is a relic of the late 1700s when the idea of a direct vote was seen as a bad idea--and voting was limited to land owning white males over 21.

I think that Barack Obama is a smart, articulate man with a lot of charisma and talent. I have read one of his books and its very interesting. He is very talented. How would this play out in the White House? Hard to know. I think that some of the debates about him are very revealing of the unresolved race issues in the US--I have seen it argued he is not really "African-American" because his African descent is not from someone who was enslaved! That means that the whole history of slavery remains unresolved in American society--what I think that means is that there is still a feeling of looking down by whites upon blacks because the black population is descended from slaves, and here comes Barack Obama, and what does this portion of the white population make of HIM?

I hope he wins the election!

It seems to me that Americans (and not just African Americans) worry about/hang on to their ethnic origins more than many other people. I have met Americans who tell me that they are also Irish, but in reality they just had a great-great-great-grandparent who was Irish! Similarly Obama is always described as "African American", but wasn't he born and bred in the US to a white mother and a black father? Isn't he just "American"?