Letters to the Editor

• America Desperately Needs a Brilliant Leader, Not An Experienced Administrator -- and People are Starting to Recognize This

  [Read the article: Heartbreak ahead for Hillary Clinton?]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  First, as a usually vocal critic of the Salon Cult of Hillary, I do have to say that I appreciate that Walter Shapiro has taken a break (temporary, permanent? who knows, but it's refreshing!) from drinking the Hillary Koolaid, so as to provide some a more impartial, bigger picture view of what's really going on in the Democratic field. And to that end, it's most refreshing to read a Salon article that isn't cram-jammed full of passive-aggressive potshots at Obama and overt Hillary worship.

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  America is in a disastrous time, not only in terms of practical policies, but in terms of spirit, and in terms of our national philosophy.

  We have lost touch with the core values of the Constitution, we seem to have turned away from our commitment to human rights, we have transformed from a champion of those in need (home and abroad ) into the world's bully and aggressor. We have lost the faith of many around the world, and even worse, we have lost the faith of many here in America...people who have watched as year after year, decisions were made, votes were taken, and our leaders -- DEMOCRATS INCLUDED -- gave away our human rights, constitutional rights, privacy rights, and our hard-earned money for causes that are an anathema to everything we hold dear.

  In today's America, all men are not created equal -- because today's America can bug your phones, imprison you, and torture you without due process. We can prevent those of you who are gay from having equal rights. And if you're Muslim -- all bets are off. We have leaders who actually think that the cause of the Palestinians is the same as the jihadist Islamic movement. We can force your children to learn "intelligent design" in schools. The separation of church and state is breached, civil rights are breached, human rights are breached, and America's reputation is seriously compromised.

  To facilitate this, we have been served a steady diet of fear-mongering and anti-intellectualism for years, courtesy of the Bush administration, the Republicans, and the religious wingnuts. You have the fellow Repubs laughing at Ron Paul for suggesting that 9/11 or the Muslim attitude toward America has NOTHING to do with our foreign policy. Yeah, and Saddam had WMDs. And the Iraqis will greet us with flowers. And the war'll take a few months. And we can defeat "terror" as a concept. Gays are a threat to heterosexual marriage. Evolution is a hoax. The 9/11 widows are capitalizing on their misfortune. Iran has nuclear weapons. It's ignorance, fear and misinformation as an official domestic and foreign policy.

  The president who will be inaugurated in January 2009 will face a huge task. The president will of course need to administer policies, procedures, strategies. But let's face it -- if you are smart, have management skills, and you're smart enough to bring in the right teams of people every leader needs to handle implementation -- this is not brain surgery. Most politicians can handle that part of the job. And Hillary would perhaps even be the best candidate at this part of the job, given that she has 30+ years of experience in "administration."

  But administration is only part of the job, and right now, it's far and away the least important part of the job.

  The real challenge for American's new president is LEADERSHIP - it's regaining credibility, trust, and authority in the world. We need to restore America's image as a land of freedom, democracy, human rights, civil rights. We need to put the heart back in America, and back into other nations'/peoples' feelings about America. At the same time, we have to realistically defend ourselves against extremist/terrorist attacks, but without alienating the rest of the world, and many of our own citizens, at the same time.

  And who is best suited to inspire credibility, trust, and confidence in Americans and others around the world?

  It's the man who is taking the lead. Barack Obama. Democrats -- and some Republicans -- are instinctively recognizing that while any of the candidates can administer, only one can truly LEAD.

  People are recognizing that America needs a LEADER with vision, heart, and the ability to inspire passion and confidence. They are recognizing the value of a brilliant, charismatic, bi-racial man whose father was Muslim, a man who is a gifted writer and orator, a man who can communicate his vision and heart (read his books, which he wrote himself). It is his intelligence, charisma, and ability to communicate that gives him the skills needed to help America transform from fear to hope, recapture our flagging patriotism, and even build back lost trust and good will in the world.

  This is why it doesn't matter that Barack is younger, or that Hillary has 30 years of "administration" experience. This is why people are flocking to Barack. They are recognizing that we are at a crossroads -- we need a Thomas Jefferson-like leader, we need someone with the vision to start undoing the damage of the Bush/Neocon administration.

  Hillary is not that person. She knows it. American knows it. The world knows it.

  Barack Obama is.

  Antoine de Saint-Exupery said:

  "If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea."

  Permalink Monday, January 7, 2008 07:02 AM