Full disclosure: You’re right, I don’t like Obama. I don’t like the fiscal policies he advocates. I don’t plan to vote for him.

That said, there’s a lot in his transportation plan that I would wholeheartedly and enthusiastically support if it wasn’t so vague. For instance,

– Strengthen Core Infrastructure

– Improve and Modernize Air Traffic Control

– Invest in Public Transportation

I get the idea that if Obama released a detailed transportation plan, it would allow Republicans to pick apart his ideas. On the other hand, if Obama was attacked he could simply point to McCain’s utter lack of any transportation plan, and make a complete mockery out of him. Force him to put his ideas on the table.

I like the idea from John Kerry’s campaign. Obama’s PDF talking points could be an executive summary, leading into a 50+ page document spelling everything out. If Obama did this, no one would be able to claim that he was all fluff and no substance.

A good move I saw was with the Kerry campaign, in which you could continue to “click” down a level to learn more about each issue. It started off with the high level issues and you could break it down pretty far.

I think it’s clear that you just don’t like Obama. I wouldn’t give a thumbs down on most of what was up there. It would be nice to know more details, but I can’t imagine that any presidential campaign would list too much more.

I chatted with Mayor Rybak of Minneapolis yesterday, who is a major supporter and local player within the Obama campaign, and we got on the topic of transportation. He said he’s very excited that with the new blood we will hopefully have in 2009 (both at Presidential level and Congress), that the 2009 transportation bill could help speed up transit projects across the country and provide a significant boost to the levels of transit funding. This is coming from a guy who’s involved and liberal.

I’m optimistic and would like more details too. But I think that giving “thumbs down” on all of those points is silly.

That’s my point exactly. Posting a bland PDF filled with cliches and talking points on your campaign website is very weak.

Sure, at least Obama has a statement about transportation (unlike McCain). But he shouldn’t get points for simply showing up to class. We should definitely expect more out of both candidates in this area.

No matter your ideology, these issues are very important. Critical, even. Americans are spending too much time stuck in traffic, jammed onto overcrowded subways, stranded on airport tarmacs, and on and on.

What do we spend our time talking about? Rev. Wright, sniper fire, bowling scores, perceptions of race, etc. We should be talking about things that matter.

The whole thing is very sad.

we should expect more out of our presidential candidates that these bland statements about how we need to fix this and that without any details or time tables.

mccain is no better. like you said he doesn’t even have a tranportation plan, from what i can tell …..