Dear brothers and sisters,

Once I heard someone say that the truly great democratic leader is one who dreams a great dream for us. As one whose first presidential vote was for Jack Kennedy, and whose last presidential vote maybe for Barack Obama, I have been gratified, at times stunned, by Obama’s eloquence.

Is he a perfect vessel for social justice? Was Lincoln?

One of the incidents involving Lincoln's nomination in 1860 was his message to his supporters at the Republican convention that they not trade promises for convention votes and that he would not be bound by their promises. They ignored his message. After he was nominated and elected, he somehow kept every deal they had made. He was a lawyer for the railroads who was an authentic populist, who mocked those who believed the right of property was equal to the rights of individuals.

As Obama does a gandy dance* around some of the difficult issues that have been used by the right to push back the clock, not beyond the two Roosevelts, but beyond Lincoln, we might just cut him some slack. A littler obfuscation on gun control, for example, may be painful to some of us, but it might be appropriate, although the NRA apparently, hasn't been fooled. A little distancing from Wes Clark’s blunt, but accurate assessment of John McCain's service career, isn't the same as drinking cool aid.

Ironically, during the 1960 campaign, my eldest brother, an Air Force officer, complained about Kennedy's war record. "The only thing he did is get his PT Boat run over by a Jap destroyer."

This is not the first time in this campaign that Obama has shown amazing insight and grace with his analysis of a complex problem. His first speech on race, when he tried to explain Rev. Wright's anger, is, and will be, a classic. Rev. Wright repaid him by a self-absorbed display of petulance that nearly destroyed Obama's campaign.

I expect that some of the response to his message on patriotism will reflect the same destructive anger that marks Rev. Wright and so much of the Vietnam protest. Those protestors who burned the American flag they may have actually prolonged the war and insured the birth of the Nixon-Reagan-Bush era.

Obama chooses not to burn the flag, but to waive it. God bless America, the beautiful.

johnklotz.blogspot.com

*"Gandy dancer" refers to the footwork of railroad workers placing and resetting ties on the rail road.

Thanks for catching my typo on "waiving the flag" although it might be an interesting semantic-semiotic discussion on what "waiving" the flag might mean.

I am really sorry that Obama's speech hasn't engendered more comment on this thread, but it includes a fair representation of the circular firing squad mentality of the left.

You are seeing a lot of that with the comments in other areas on the media about his speech yesterday on faith-based initiatives and his attempt to carefully balance the issue.

He says, among other things, that he came to his faith, later in life, when working as a community organizer in South Chicago and seeing really committed individuals working out their religious values in social action.

At the time of Vatican II, a hymn was quite popular that went "And you will know we are Christians by our love."

I'm not sure the current Vatican understands that, but the people Obama met has an activists showed him something by their love.

There are cynics that might claim that OBama's conversion from agnosticism to Christianity was a "political" choice rather than a religious one. Maybe, he is only playing a role.

Maybe, but then again maybe we are all just playing a role. Mother Theresa had moments of dark despair but continued to play her role.

But there can be no question but that this man is the most thoughtful, articulate candidate to have come down the pike in the long, long time.

johnklotz.blogspot.com

This is very, very welcome news. After all the hand-wringing on the web about Obama's move to the center, now comes a clear populist shot across McCain's and the Republican's bow. The fact that so manner Democrats drank cool aid on the 2005 bankruptcy "reform" is one reason why we need a strong Democratic President to hold their feet to the fire.

BUT there is the issue of giving bankruptcy judges the discretion to alter pay-out terms of mortgages and the outrageous credit card interest whereby Congress has effectively abolished usury laws.

But Obama's position is a much needed start and worthy of a huge sigh of relief from his supporters who may have been spooked by the uproar from the burn-the-house-down left.

True populism is beyond left and right.

johnklotz.blogspot.com