Barackomania

Alligators can't vote in U.S. elections, not even enlightened ones, but Virgil and I both agree: Obama is now riding the crest of an unstoppable wave. For a long time, I was personally wary of Obama's rock-star persona, even though it is complemented and offset by a brilliant, laser-like intelligence. Watching him grow into his potential as a world leader over these many months, my skepticism has waned, and my excitement is on the rise, along with the rest of America. Obama doesn't lead with ego, but with passion, candor, and integrity. Without realizing it consciously, I think that is part of what the country is responding to: the fact that he is cut from a more transpersonal cloth, of the likes of Martin Luther King, Gandhi, and the Kennedy brothers, embodying, as they did, the world's most evolved human possibilities for a better tomorrow.

But Obama is not all vision and hope either. He alone among the candidates sees the acute danger emanating from Waziristan, the ungoverned tribal area on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and how the regrouping of Taliban and Al Qaeda forces there needs to be seriously addressed. Obama reiterated that he would consider going in there militarily, even without Musharraf's permission, although he would certainly try diplomacy to gain his support first. When confronted by a reporter as to whether he was not, then, in favor of GWB's policy of preemptive war, he was quick to respond that this was neither comparable nor preemptive. These are the same people who attacked us, he said, and they are not part of any legitimately recognized country. More importantly, they continue to plot against us and wish us serious harm. Bush, on the other hand, embarked on an oil war under false pretenses, against a country that had not attacked us. I'm hoping if/when Obama wins, he will (a) pick Bill Richardson for his VP or Secretary of State, and that (b) he will not be killed like his forerunners.

But I do feel sorry for Hillary Clinton. She would probably make a good president, too, but this time America really does want CHANGE and with her long history, there is no way she can transform herself into the symbol of that. Below are excerpts from a couple of commentaries off the HuffingtonPost.


[James Moore]

The problem for everyone other than Obama is that they are all telling us how bad the world is and how much danger we face and how only they are qualified to protect us. This is a kind of K-Mart version of Bush's entire administration and Hillary sells it with as much fervor as does Rudy G.

Obama makes us think it is possible to solve problems without guns. He is giving boomers and their babies and the babies of their babies a reason to look forward with longing instead of backwards with fear. If he is elected, it will be, in part, a reaction that says to the rest of the planet that we are the exact opposite of what you have seen in the past eight years and that we let slip the grasp of our government and leadership but things have changed and we will now be the America everyone expects.

Karl Rove's dream was to establish a political hegemony. I think he is about to accomplish his goal.

But not for his party.


[Jon Robin Baitz]

Well. Voters know what the fire this time looks like: They are thirsty for intellect unfettered by compass-watching-perpetual caution. That alone draws them to Obama.

They are voracious for a passionate and credible communicator; that too, points them towards Obama.

They crave a new model, a new kind of American, who somehow is not redolent of the old and shop-worn language of the past. That craving brings them in a straight and inexorable line right to Obama.