Obama

[poliphilo]

I suspect- being very cold and rational about it- that Hillary is the better bet- the one with the experience and the background and the policies- but it's hard not to find Obama exciting. He 's smart, impassioned, unspun, untainted- and he makes people feel good about themselves. When was the last time American politics threw up a candidate like this? Bill Clinton? No, not really. I reckon you have to go back as far as Bobby Kennedy.

We've been through a really dreary, depressing time and here, suddenly- appearing out of nowhere like Joan of Arc-  is this brilliant young man- and he's drawing crowds like no politician in recent history has been able to draw them- not just of the faithful but of the unaligned and traditionally antagonistic.   He may not go all the way- and if he does he'll disappoint us- but every society needs these "bliss was it in that dawn to be alive" moments. They're not about substance but about hope and the revival of national myth. America had become old and brutish- the country of Dick Cheyney and Donald Rumsfeld- and that's how not she likes to think of herself. (It's not how her traditional allies like to think of her either.) Thanks to Obama in the last couple of weeks we've caught a glimpse of a better, rootsier America- energetic, pioneering, idealistic and- above all else- young.

Comments

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

He IS exciting. I saw and heard his speech at the Democratic Convention during the Kerry/Edwards debacle. He was electrifying! But I don't know about untainted. At his very best, Bill Clinton is mesmerizing. It is helping his wife's campaign because HE is a people person and she's not so much. For the last few years, I had thought perhaps she was the right person for the job - but just because she is a woman, doesn't mean that she is. Ron Paul (the Republican candidate who is setting all kinds of money raising records) scares me to death. If the attack in September of 2001 did nothing else, it scared this country. I see the fundamentalist 'backlash' as a direct result of that.

Of course, we know NOW that it was mostly John Kennedy's fault this country got involved in Viet Nam, he turned out not to be quite as golden as everyone thought he was.

I'm watching, and paying attention. I'm not declaring myself as a supporter of anyone as yet. I'm sick of the petty nyah nyah nyah, yes you did, no I didn't. And you're right, he probably will disappoint us. But he managed to polarize the young people in Iowa, and get out the vote. That in itself is AMAZING.

[arielstarshadow.livejournal.com]

Mike Huckabee is extremely frightening as well.

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

Yes, but he's got Chuck Norris on his side. Which I don't find the least bit funny!

[margaretarts.livejournal.com]

Agree. And scariest of all, the moment that incredibly stupid Huckabee-Norris commercial came out (November, I think), Huckabee's ratings skyrocketed. Maybe this kind of dumb mob mentality is what the founding fathers were afraid of, creating the electoral college to save American democracy from itself.

[solar-diablo.livejournal.com]

The first thing I thought when I saw that ad?

"Looks like Huckabee has his Oprah."

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

If nothing else Obama is good for democracy. It's great to see so many people- young and old- turning out to vote.

I think Hillary is shop-soiled. She belongs to a not very edifying past. Also she's terribly divisive. I'd love to see a woman become president- but not this one.

[msjann65.livejournal.com]

Eisenhower sent the first "advisors" into Vietnam in 1954 after the French cut out. Our country could not bear to see another country turn red at that time, and in a fair election, Ho Chi Minh would have become the president of a united Vietnam.

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

I know you're right historically.