nate33 wrote:Yada yada yada.
And what makes Barack Obama such a strong candidate?
Right, the old 'I know you are but what am I' deflection. We've already established that as a primary reason she was selected. But I doubt you've convinced yourself yet.
At some point staying 'on message' fails the sniff test on truth. Don't answer me, but ask yourself the quiet question: If John McCain kicked it today, pre-November 4, then Sara Palin would be the best qualified leader in the race? Sara Palin is whom you want as your diplomat preventing a reignited Cold War in Russia?
Look some part of what makes a good leader is the ability to inspire folks to want to follow your lead. Tough to deny Obama has the ability to inspire. Even his detractors allude to it. Oh sure he's a great orator, and yeah he's really popular, and right he's real smart and all, and fine he _seems_ to strike a conciliatory note, and fine fine he sounds reasonable and all, but uh... uh...
But aside from intelligence, diplomatic ability, the talent to mobilize masses and convert doubters to supporters, what makes him qualified to lead?
Over the past 8 years we've squandered the 'peace dividend', gutted science programs, gutted education, gutted regulatory agencies ensuring clear air, water, power plants, food, medicine, we drove the economy into the toilet, lost ground to China and Europe, lost friends and allies overseas and in the war against terror, gotten entrenched into a strategically questionable and unimaginably costly ground war (in a supposed Nation-building exercise that we continue to finance despite the host nation having a multi-billion dollar surplus of their own), a war that has sapped our resources, strengthened our enemies, and contributed to the loss of an entire American city to a preventable disaster, a war that has only served to enrich the corporation that our VP worked for and the Oil industry that earned the president his livelihood. Oh and he presided over the widening of the largest gap between the rich and poor, hell the middle class and rich. We've made the middle class into the newly poor with deregulated home loan industry.
I would say that a track-record of support for these policies should lead you to question a man's judgment. Even the Repubs at the convention (and Lieberman) suggest that Washington has done a pisspoor job, needs to be kicked into shape -- and a guy who's been there for the past three decades is just the man to do it. Because he's a 'maverick', which means every now and again he'll uncork an attitude and act nasty, even while voting to support the president, (or failing to show up to vote at all). But he's a 'maverick'. Or grouchy old guy, whatever you want to call it.
Fact is we've lost ground in the Intel community in part because we've pissed off our allies, with 'go-it alone' snap judgements and bullheadedness. We've made it tougher to recruit based on the loss of our international reputation as the white hat good guys. The America of our Statue of Liberty, the America of principles, where all men are created equal, and so on. (And nevermind recruitment overseas-- selling out our own agents, and cooking data has torpedoed morale and confidence within the organizations.)
But instead say two words: 'Abu Ghraib'. Suddenly you've just recruited dozens of potential terrorists. Seems to me we could have done a lot better to defeat terrorism if we hadn't squandered the (terrible) opportunity that the World Trade towers' fall gave us. That for once in our history the US was the underdog. Countries (and international police organizations) were rushing to help, cooperating like never before. Hell, sending money, as they did post-New Orleans.
As for economics: we all try to ignore the concept that our money is essentially based on a fiction. It has no inherent value except what we all consensually agree or believe it has. Your gasoline receipts are an extension of that mutual illusion, since gas speculation drives up the futures cost on gas and so on. That's exciting if you're buying gas futures in a period of pessimism, but if your grocery bill and car cost count for a significant portion of your income, or if you struggle to pay your heating bill, it's not so fun. I have friends who got free heating oil from Hugo Chavez' giveaway last winter, who's doing the better job of recruiting?
But the ability to inspire confidence, to excite optimism, to get my son's friends fired up to actually participate in the political process, to put 85,000 people on the edge of their seats, to excite more people to tune-in than watched anything other than the superbowl and a limited few other events. To excite people to donate in small dollars, more than the massive lobbying firms and corporate donors available to the other side of the aisle. To get young people and old eager to volunteer their time. Seems to me that's the exact sort of energy that can help turn around consumer confidence, inspire extra effort. To risk optimism.
Way I see it, there's a reason why Democrats always seem to preside over a strong economy, and seems to me, some part of it, not insignificant, is that they sell a more hopeful vision of the future and human nature. More ideals, less fear. The scared man hoards, the hopeful man tries new ventures.
And overseas the ability to invigorate our allies can go a long way in asking other countries to help foot the bills and clean up some messes that none of us started, none of us wanted, but it's just the right thing to do. The ability to tell a convincing narrative and make people feel good about joining your side is what is called Diplomacy.
Seems to me you'd have a tough case to make trying to convince anybody that Jon McCain inspires confidence. Especially not when his primary selling point is that he's irascible and stubborn.
What an Obama election could mean socially and inspirationally to a whole generation of kids who have checked out and look only to athletes, musicians and 'gangstas' as role models-- who feel like school, politics, etc is for other people-- is a whole 'nother story. My son, who was an indifferent and checked-out student in highschool now has the idea that a brownskinned kid like him can actually get good grades at a community college, transfer to a better school, graduate from Georgetown law and start working in politics. Helping people. Last year he was trying to be hanging out with Latin Kings. (Okay, thinking he could change gangs into positive forces for change, but still).
Just saying, there's no more 'The Man is keeping me down' garbage if your president played by the rules and got elected. There's no more feeling foreign in your own country just because your parents weren't born here, if your own president had a dad with a funny name. It took JFK to start the peace corps, to suggest we all find a way to volunteer and pitch in: "Ask not..." And here we have a guy who's a literal child of that urge for altruistic idealism, a child of the peace corps. But leavened with a few real world truths, it's a hard life out there, brownskinned, single mother, the America I know. It's hard.
Conspiracy guy would say: The biggest danger lies in if they do him like they did JFK, like they did Bobby, like they did Martin, hoping to have a reason to jumpstart martial law and seize what might slip away. Grab the last few scraps before there's nothing left to grab.
I'm tired of fear. The shxt doesn't work. Tell you what, 8 years of the other way, I sure don't feel any safer. Seems to me terror and all is a virus, no way to kill it all, but you can inoculate the body politic by living right, live up to the true meaning of our creed. Like the carpenter said, if you ain't against me, you're on my side. NOT the other way around.
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