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• Friday, February 29, 2008 12:19 AM

  The Obama Cult

  Calling the people who support Obama a cult of sorts is probably a part of the reason why Clinton has been faring so poorly of late. I suspect that the Clinton approach to campaigning is doing much to drive people towards Obama.

  I don't know if the Clintons and their followers realize this, but after 16 years of "us vs. them" political warfare, people are tired. They're tired of being told that the other side is the devil, or fools, or in this case, deluded cultists. They're tired of hearing that if they don't vote for you, their state somehow isn't "significant."

  Look, I get that the Clintonites are hungry for a Restoration of sorts, and I get the temptation to do whatever it takes to win. They've been fighting in the trenches (some might argue in the gutter) for so long, going tit for tat with the Republicans, that they've lost faith in another way. But I can't follow them down there.

  As my username suggests, I'm a gushy moderate. I have Republican friends and Democratic friends, and we get along quite well. Sure, I find some of their ideas goofy, as I'm sure they find some of mine. But I don't spend my time belittling them, and I certainly don't think they're evil or even morally suspect. Instead, I argue my case and work to bring them to my side. Failing that, we try to come up with an acceptable compromise.

  This, I believe, is where the country is at. They recognize that we have some serious problems and they're not interested in these internecine political battles for some slight advantage. They believe that a solution to long standing problems such as health care, social security, Iraq, and on and on need buy-in from a broad cross-section of the country. These aren't problems you can solve with 50 percent plus 1 of the vote.

  I don't think it's a coincidence that after 20 years of Bush-Clinton-Bush politics that the two likely nominees for the major parties are the ones who are speaking most to the political middle.

  Sure, the Obama campaign is something of a phenomenon. But why shouldn't it be? When was the last time the Democratic party made a serious attempt at talking to the so-called "red states," rather than just simply writing them (and by extension their concerns) off? I hear Bill Clinton talk about these people needing a President and these people not, or Mark Penn talking about "significant" states, and I just shake my head.

  I've seen the movie where one side fights to annihilate the other. It ends in a 16 year stall in the health care debate and no serious work on social security reform and round after round of finger pointing.

  And people wonder why young people haven't come out to vote until now...

  —gushymoderate Read gushymoderate's other letters
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