By the undue adulation Obama is receiving. I agree that it is unwarranted. I also understand that he has some compormised positions, and some statements in his past that contradict some of his over-lofty rhetoric. (Though I found the affirmative action statement that Walker linked to to be characteristically thoughtful and nuanced, not particularly polarizing--though I understand if you believe that affirmative action is always polarizing you would see it differently.)
However, just because you are paranoid doesn't mean everyone is not out to get you. By which I mean that just because some people are freaking out over Obama (a group in Fort Worth, I think it was, recently applauded one of his sneezes--tried to find the you tube link but I couldn't) does not mean that he is not the best candidate to be president in 2008.
I do not believe Obama is politically uncompromised. I think it's great that people are starting to throw the book at Obama now. It is past time. I do believe that will.i.am has come unhinged, and he and his ilk need to realize that their hero is not completely pure. But he has the talent to succeed, and the kind of approach to public life that people are desperately hungry for--witness Obamamania.
Obama wrote in the Audacity of Hope--before all this presidential insanity started--that he knew he was a blank canvas onto which people projected a lot of different things. I wonder what he is thinking now about all this. When we saw him speak in Houston last week, he walked on stage in a Toyota Center full of 20,000 screaming fans, stopped, and just squinted up into the cheap seats. He didn't beam, or wave. For just a second, he looked puzzled, or possibly concerned. Then he walked to the podium and began his address.
What would you do in his shoes? Tamping down the ardor of the fans would probably be unwise in a race this tight. But he has to be making the same assessments all of us are about the precarious situation he's in. In the last year, Obama has grown as a candidate due to tough competition from Senator Clinton. Time will tell whether this next phase of the campaign will help turn him into the statesman America needs now, or disappoint the millions who have placed their hopes for change in him. Using history as a guide, I'm betting on the former.
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Obama wrote in the Audacity of Hope--before all this presidential insanity started
Did he really write it??? There is a lot of buzz out there on the interweb, even among Democrats, that it was ghostwriten.
Jenny, well written and thought out, as usual. Not like my posts which at the end of a day are hyper-manic, indelicate verbal spackles.
Oh, to be the blank canvas upon which America can pin it collective hopes and dreams. How does he even come close to living up to it?
In some ways he is a victim of his own success. To go from literally nowhere to the White House in like four years is amazing!!
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