|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Obama The Unknown |
|---|
| so much promise is easy to hang on him; so little accomplishment justifies it |
|
This is Dark Cloud on Wednesday, January 02, 2008. Back in the days when I was, perhaps, more easily entertained, I found myself often enough with folks at my community radio station who’d bewail the Reagan Administration and its various corruptions and who’d work themselves into a froth of rage and frustration. They’d get short and curt with not only me but each other. Not a few of these conversations ended with: “All right then, what do you think the answer is?” Being extremely witty, I’d reply. “What do you think the question is?” In stunned silence at my brilliance, the room would quiet, and I’d exit to silent applause and the lust of all women therein. Well, that’s how I choose to recall it, but there remains to this day the same problem, in my mind, on the American Political Left. It’s vaguely important because the chosen and meaningless catchphrase the Democrats have adopted, at least in Iowa where the caucus will be tomorrow, is – wait for it! – “change.” Dear God, no. Not that….. It’s the liquor talking. I think we can all agree the nation needs to change its leadership and the mindset it represented. I’m pretty sure the far left reaches of New Age, Crystal Pyramid Therapists and Olde Left Academics trying to cast themselves in revered, century-old roles of prominence and failure from Marx and Lenin would joyfully join hands with the vast majority of boring, middle class Republican xenophobes, racists, and reactionary religious thugs to oust the neo-cons and Bushies by methods involving both pain and humiliation. If their goals didn’t appall you, the incompetence and arrogant misuse of law and government would. But, we require competence to fill it and the patience to re-assemble the level of competence with which the United States has always been assumed to have that Bush destroyed. I’m very nervous about who might have the finger on the button in 13 months. I’ll tell you right off that Barack Obama scares the hell out of me. He’s a brilliant public speaker, a student of political rhetoric and history and knows the public is not, so things can be repeated and seem fresh and new. His platform, beyond a call for ‘change’, is almost totally devoid of content, as are the platforms of his rivals, but he’s the one implying he’s different. He may or may not be. He’s certainly packaged himself correctly for the current market. His smile and self regard are enormous, and while I keep looking for the signs of the dangerous demagogue, I have not found it as yet. But he hasn’t had power, yet. He worries me. He has never had to live with the blowback of an executive decision that cannot be erased and instantly made right. Can he handle failure, sustained opposition? Bush cannot, Reagan could, Clinton could. Can Obama? I love the idea of a charismatic non-white American President with an African name. I love the idea of a nation excited again among the young and educated to get the show on the road, as happened with Kennedy. Kennedy, however, followed Eisenhower, an absolutely competent and responsible man who played the press for well meaning fools, not exactly an incorrect observation. Kennedy made them feel smart and part of the program, and that synergy misled us for decades. A President Obama would follow an intuitively smart, selfish, and privileged dry drunk. I have to say, I was impressed looking at a Bush Cabinet with Rice and Powell. But Powell - charismatic and competent and all the good will in the world - was there for window dressing, their Adlai Stevenson, and Rice – whatever her history, her academic achievements, her clothing style – has been a complete failure in both of the roles she attained. I’m mostly a liberal. I hate to say that. I also realize that Bush is a weak President, that his own Cabinet never held him in high regard, and he’s managed to offend both progressives and the military over the same issues. That’s tough to do, but he did it. It’s tough to see any of the Republican candidates winning, and of the three primary Democratic ones, Senators Edwards and Clinton would be, at least, okay. They’re competent pluggers, although neither excites me in person or by their politics. Obama holds the most promise but is devoid of absolutely any accomplishment in his resume that remotely suggests he could bring more than an image to the Oval Office. He’s for the most change but, if I can brilliantly whine again, from what reality to what possibility? Bad to good, is about all he says. I fear a Shrub produced by the Left, thinking he’s God’s chosen vessel for Great Moments, and we should just trust him. Still, I’d vote for him over any of the GOP hicks, hacks, and transparent fools. It’s come to that. |
| Post your views and reviews on The Boulder Lout Forum. |