i donated to Obama
From my first blog, oslutions.com (2005 to 2008), recovered from the Internet Archive and republished as it was. Links are from that time and many no longer work. Original: http://oslutions.com/blog/2008/02/i-donated-to-obama/.
today at the Indian embassy in Bangkok, i met this desperate US guy that was short on 2200 bahts (~$67) to get his visa for India, so i lent him the money. then followed a nice conversation, and after chatting about the elections, i said: “you know what would make me more happy than you paying me back, is if you would donate the money to Obama” (note: non-US citizens cannot officialy donate for US campaigns). the guy took a few secs to think, then said he didn’t think Obama needed more money, but that he would do it if i wanted it.
i don’t know all that much about Obama and his program, but for me a major strength is that “[he] knows what it means not to be an American”.
Update from the NYT (June 11th 08):
“It would not be an exaggeration to say that the Democrats’ nomination of Obama as their candidate for president has done more to improve America’s image abroad — an image dented by the Iraq war, President Bush’s invocation of a post-9/11 “crusade,” Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo Bay and the xenophobic opposition to Dubai Ports World managing U.S. harbors — than the entire Bush public diplomacy effort for seven years.”