I guess I'm an "Obama person," though I backed into it -- I was for Biden first (so I'm pleased he's back), then I wanted Edwards (before he proved to suffer that dreary typical Clinton-style tendency to dip his quill in the wrong inkwell), and then I did back Hillary (my father is a former university history department chairman, and he still teaches, so it's easy to yield to him) -- but now I've come to back Obama, though for reasons which might alarm my parents.
But, Not (may I call you Not?), I'm going to try to resist the ego trip of assuming you're some blank slate waiting for the right bromide or jingle from me to turn you around 180 degrees, if only because I recall your claiming that you picked out a single passage from his "Hope" book and concluded that he could only be the appearance of a blank slate. If you find that one datum just too damning, then any counterclaims are going to seem pointless.
(Everyone please wait -- more coming via editing -- )
The funny thing is, just now I was flipping around cable and I settled on TV One. TV One is a black-oriented channel which I frankly hardly ever look at -- but it had an hour coming up of one Roland S. Martin (there's a TV fisherman Roland Martin who fished with Bush, so I guess the distinctive S. is important) asking questions of his own and his audience's of Obama.
Now, you might expect that this would be nothing but a sunny smiling infomercial lovefest, but in fact it was one of the better interviews I've seen -- not because Martin is that great, but because Obama seemed much more freed up than we usually see and hear him. He was asked how he could balance being for "black issues" and issues from the rest of us, and he replied that there are aspects of being African-American which are universally positive assets, such as a deep and progressive faith. At the same time, though, he said that the culture needs some housecleaning, and he immediately went to the issue of homophobia. He said it should be possible to have both progressive politics as well as the Sermon on the Mount.
In other words, there are indeed particulars to this man for anyone with the genuine curiosity to listen for them -- much as McCain made for a fascinating profile in October's Atlantic Monthly, one which made it all the sadder for me to realize that I can't elect a man who ultimately seems to believe that any ground won in Iraq somehow conveys victory backwards in time to Vietnam.
Not, I can't speak to or for all the people who for you are ultimately detractors -- the street corner activists, the giggly young "true believers," those in your family who are basically thinking "At last, one of ours is getting in." But for whatever it could be worth, I can tell you what I see.
Is he the next FDR? I think he's ultimately, for all the hype, too centrist for that -- and that may be a shame, because we may be due for an FDR. Is he the next JFK? In obvious ways, of course not -- he's no Naval hero, he never wrote anything to rank with "Why England **84**" or "Profiles in Courage."
(sorry, everyone, still working on this -- more yet to edit -- )
But he DOES remind me of JFK in terms of the sheer acuity and scope of mind and facility with ideas, which become all the more clear in a more open than usual setting like that TV One interview. I'm not talking about his character, I'm not talking about his niceness -- we're electing a bureaucrat, not a Pope. I'm talking raw talent.
I find that important. Biden is only partly right, he will be tested -- but not just because he's some "test magnet." He'll be tested because the test has already begun, at the hands of Bush leaving. In times like this, I think of how we lucked out getting Kennedy to lead us during the Cuban missile crisis. It's a crisis worth studying. Kennedy got together a council, he stood alone against an immense military push to launch World War Three, he was up against a Kremlin divided against itself, and he navigated an intricate and delicate path towards -- not much, but hell, at least it wasn't World War Three.
And that's what I see when I see Obama, very much that same style, that same attitude. I think we need that back.
There's been a lot of hype about change. I think the man is really quite centrist, and that we may really not get ENOUGH change. And of course, of course, at some point he'll break our hearts, they all do. But as much as I would appreciate change, there's a bigger reason I'm voting for him.
I'm voting for him to keep the hell alive.
(All right, that's it. Done editing.)
(Eh -- sort of. By the way, midsize makes a good point too.
)