In her column yesterday, Maureen Dowd did a good job of pinpointing the zeitgeisty aspects of the Obama candidacy: "the dream of a cool, smart, elegant, reasonable, literary, witty, decent 'West Wing' sort of president."
However, she--or maybe some meanie editor--titled the column "Voting for a Smile," a concept which I have decided, once and for all, is bullshit.
I suspect that many people want to laugh off Obama in order to cover their asses and not appear naive. It's tempting to say it's all hype before you know much about him.
He's not an empty suit. There is something inside the suit, and I'm not sure I or anyone can quite put it into words yet.
Once other people (Iowans!) agree, it's not so embarrassing. Which is of course why there's such a striking domino effect evident in the New Hampshire polls. The more he pulls ahead, the more people are willing to accept that in their hearts they support him. Of course the irony is that we could have trusted ourselves in the first place instead of waiting for other voters to validate our Obama parking tickets. "Electability" is strange group-think indeed.
As I acknowledged in my last post, he is not a Perfect Positions Aggregate. He is a leader. And I humbly admit that a leader is what I, along with so many Americans, ache for.
Back in March, I was one of the assholes, trying to stay cool. Saying, You hoi polloi can go ahead and follow your gut. I'm listening to my smart brain and it's telling me he's no different.
I recant that post from after the Oakland rally. I was trying to be skeptical. I was wrong.
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