Letters to the Editor
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Not so unusual really
Actually staying positive was the strategy Edwards used in 2004 in Iowa, which brought him from obscurity to second place in that primary. I feel the 2004 comparisons are actually quite strong here:
2004
Dean (aggressive, progressive, challenger)
Kerry (defensive, conservative, front runner)
Edwards (positive, moderate)
In 2008, Edwards has become Dean, Clinton has become Kerry and Obama has become Edwards (confused yet?). The progressive attacks the conservative front runner, and the moderate stays above the fray. Nothing especially new about that.
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Maybe Maybe Maybe
There's an awful lot of maybes in this article, and the note on which it ends is one of speculation and doubt. Only the astute will draw from within it the "transformative" character of Obama which is, win or lose, the essential ingredient in moving forward as a nation, a people, and, ultimately, a planet.
Obama definitely is the only candidate who is not mired in the past, obsessed with what has already happened, with recycling where it does the least good and actually causes great harm. Only Obama is looking ahead instead of trying to create another new arrangement of a song which remains numbingly the same. Only Obama really makes any sense at all in this futility race, the only one who can win on the merits of being The Candidate instead of being some rehashing of something that's already outlived its usefulness or, worse yet, failed outright.
Ms. Clinton is probably the biggest bag of spare parts we have running on either side. All the others, however, rely on centuries of used material and leftover ideas which, compared with the actual "Clinton Years" seem positively rote.
Only Obama relies on vision rather than The Persistence of Memory.
Not yet! It's too damned early to try and call the thing this way. "Not yet" is not Obama's "problem." It is his opportunity. It is our opportunity. But not quite yet. Soon.
Everything else has already been done. To death.
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Charisma is in the eye of the beholder
In 2000 we heard over and over again about another NEW and DIFFERENT candidate. A uniter not a divider. A reformer with results. Able to bring together the Republicans and Democrats. Confident in his own skin! (translate cocky). He wasn't saddled with that old "experience in Washington" baggage like his opponents but he had experience in the state house. And George W. Bush got into the WH with the help of this 'NEW and IMPROVED' politician narrative.
I'm not buying it. We need a candidate who has fought the powerful interests and won. And if you seem cocky, you can forget about charisma. This may have some limited appeal to a narrow spectrum of the population but that won't win a general election.
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i think Obama gives a sense of pride and security and competence.
Excellent article.
I dont' think Obama is too out of step with Iowa as he, afterall, had to win over the white collar, the factory workers and the farmers, here in Illinois.
We are a skeptical bunch as well. but, we also know someone a cut above the everyday and about political magic.
The ending of your article stating that at the end of his speech a person feels peace. I am reminded of a person, a male republican, who called on the Washington journal on Cspan one morning. The topic was of course Politics. This guy was drawn to Obama because he said there was something about him that made you feel secure.
After the endless fear mongering by the bushies and the gop, and even some in my own party (like Hillary) who are always touting the terrorist will get you, maybe what people are looking for is not Mr./Ms. Terrorism national security but, just someone who will make you feel sane, at peace and secure.
That things will be handled and addressed and the country will not be used for political gain.
And that may be why so many republicans like the man over any of their candidates. he does not fear monger but, offers a port in the storm. A sense of pride in country, a normalcy in your life and a sense of competence.
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Obama's candidacy is going nowhere.
C'mon, people. Stop wasting air time, ink and bandwidth with Obama. He is not going to be nominated and Hillary is not going to pick him as her running mate. Obama, like Howard Dean will soon become a presidential primary footnote.
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Trite but True
I'm just returning from a family reunion, one of the few times I socialize and talk politics with life long Republicans. Prior to the reunion I was leaning towards Kucinich because I thought he spoke with the most veracity, and has the voting record to back up his progressive message. However, my family changed my mind. They're mostly made up of good hearted people who simply have the misfortune to be afflicted with Republicanism. My Uncle Allen and Aunt Ginny (of South Carolina) expressed a deep displeasure with their party's use of gay marriage as a divisive political tool and, moreover, their demonization of illegal immigrants. Consequently, they said they'd be willing to vote for a Democrat if the party put forth a candidate who actually could live up to Bush's rhetoric of unifying instead of division. Similarly, my Aunt Jeanie- an Air Force wife & native Nebraskan- expressed concerns about the bumbling of the War in Iraq (although she still misguidedly supports the premise), the national milieu of disunity, and, most significantly, is upset with the growing national deficit, "If you ran your household like that... You couldn't do it." After stating that she really thinks the country needs a change to get the troops home and get our finances in order, she specifically said that Obama appeals to her, but that she would never vote for Hillary because of, "what went on when Bill was in office" (Monica not Kosovo). Unfortunately, my Uncle Dave still plans on voting for a Republican, mainly based upon his misunderstanding of illegal immigration. I believe that Obama, Kucinich, Edwards, and Richardson would all make fine candidates (with Obama being the one with the greatest ability to appeal to all Americans), and I sincerely hope that Clinton does not receive the nomination. Her support for the war aside, I simply believe that in a time of Fox News, talk radio, and hateful blogs, it would be of great benefit to the country to have a unifying president like Barack, and rightly or wrongly, her very name elicits a viscerally negative reaction in millions of Americans. Combining Obama's considerable abilities to unite this deeply, and harmfully, divided country with the fact that my mom knows him personally to be a man of sound mind, judgment, and character, I think he would make a terrific president- despite the triteness of the message.