I have been out of the US for a while and was happy to have a chance to watch the Republican Party National Convention, even if all the speakers were muffled by the Spanish translations. I saw former New York City Mayor Rudy Guilliani and also, Vice Presidential Nominee, Sarah Palin speak. Guiliani spoke much of Obama’s inexperience in comparison to McCain’s experience. I will readily admit, I don’t know anything about McCain aside from his age so maybe he has done a lot. I believe though if that were true, if he were the stand up, get things done kind of guy that they were speaking about, I would have heard about him somewhere along the way.

Palin spoke of many things including her experience. As a high school representative, mayor of her own town, Wasilla Alaska, and also Governor of Alaska, her rise has been impressive. Unfortunately, I felt that hearing someone talk of their experience in high school was leading up to a bid for an election for prom queen. With only two years in office as governor, her experience seems to be less than Obama’s.

Palin rallied the crowd with talk about energy resources and insisted that it is a positive advancement to begin more extraction in Alaska. She mentioned a four billion dollar natural gas pipeline project that she initiated as governor. She did not mention the complications this involves such as the costly compression facility needed at the nearest ice free port five hundred miles south, the one thousand mile shipping costs and the decompression facility necessary to extract it again from the ocean liner. She did mention the jobs that this will bring to Alaska but forgot to mention what those migrant workers will do after the pipeline is completed and any form of usable methanol is thousands of miles south and available only with the shipping price tag of transporting it back north.

Palin mentioned alternative energy such as solar, wind and geothermal. She also mentioned nuclear as if it were somehow in the same category and forgot to mention that any implementations of these types of energy technology had any chance of entering the automotive industry to curb our consumption of outdated fossil fuels. In the greatest nation on earth, especially one where a potential vice presidential candidate has just endorsed large scale extraction of methanol, I am sad to hear nothing of attempts to adapt our automobiles to using the more efficient and abundant methanol source, especially when such technology is already widely used in so called “third world nations” such as Brasil. We need to move forward, develop and adopt alternative means of transportation, not hump the old American Dream dry.

They talked poorly of many things about Obama that seem to me to be strong points in Obama’s favor. These were issues that may seem like America bowing down to foreign interests if viewed egocentrically. Any sign of submission is weak and unacceptable for a power that relies on fear to maintain their status. However, as the most powerful nation in the world, we should seek to set an example for cooperative conduct in the world forum, not set a domineering mood for any country that may, god forbid, overtake us in our downfall.

While discussing the recent Russian infraction on the Georgia’s rights as a sovereign nation, Guilliani attempted to portray Obama as ill informed and weak for his suggestion that we ask for guidance or even relinquish the task to the UN security counsel. It is hardly likely that he or his advisors overlooked the fact that Russia has a veto on the UN security counsel. Rather, this is an important step towards cooperation in an emerging world community. It shows that we are ready to deal with this together, not to take on the world by ourselves. We need the support and compliance of the world community, we have our hands full in Iraq.

So I venture to say that most of these points made against Obama are strong points. We need to cooperate. Our world is no longer a world where a superpower can or should walk alone. I hope to see good leadership in this time when the world is counting us for cooperation and positive, truly democratic growth.