Can He Yes?
Hillary Clinton throws her support to Barack Obama and gracefully concedes to sighs, tears and applause from a dispirited, somewhat bullying nation. Now it’s up to Mr. Obama to seal the deal with the country. I can’t conceive of America voting the GOP back in, but then, I didn’t concieve of America voting George Bush back in nor a Killer Movie Robot becoming my governor TWICE. I can’t underestimate the power of the repeated TV clip to sum up and damn somebody’s entire life. Somehow America believed that a man who actually killed people in combat was weaker than a college cheerleader.
And the Republicans are happy to run against Obama. They’re also running scared, but they must hope their base is not going to turn out for a black man whose first name rhymes with Osama and whose middle name is Hussein. And there are Democrats out there who would feel okay voting in McCain for those reasons. It makes no sense, but to quote Hank Hill, there ya go. Still, McCain is not beloved and there are a few conservatives willing to give Obama a chance, if only to gloat later if he turns out to be like Jimmy Carter (decent but ineffectual). The youths will have to step way up. Maybe this is where the generational split will happen, the only time it could happen given the disastrous reign of the Republicans. The Democrats are brave to have put up a woman and a black man as their candidates, and if Obama wins, it will signal a major political evolution for many reasons. Hopefully, just getting a moderate progressive in the White House would be enough of a sea change. And a handbrake to the lawless chaos and disorder of the GOP.
June 7, 2008 at 9:13 pm
When McCain wins, I’m moving to France.
June 7, 2008 at 9:21 pm
Not “When” — “If” — right?
Otherwise, I’ll see you at the boulangerie.
June 7, 2008 at 9:43 pm
http://nakedculture.wordpress.com/
LOOK AT THE NEW CULTURE BLOG THAT BARES ALL
June 8, 2008 at 1:55 am
*sigh*
June 8, 2008 at 3:21 am
Must I look at the new culture blog that bares all?
June 8, 2008 at 11:25 pm
Never underestimate the idiocy of the American voter. Not you or me or any of us, of course. You know – “them”.
June 9, 2008 at 12:14 am
I do hate “them.”
June 9, 2008 at 9:46 pm
I have no trouble believing a man who killed people in combat is weaker than a college cheerleader. You surprise me. Generallly I find it’s the Fox News blowhards and the neofascist chickenhawk types who promote the Neadrathal paradigm that killing people in combat is any kind of measurement of “strength.” (McCain drops bombs on peasant villages from an airplane; now there’s a masculine role model we can all get behind!)
As for Obama, it seems to me that what’s happening inside the Democratic Party right now is analogous to a frat-boy waking up in the morning with a fat ugly chick in his bed. The bitter pill the Dems are forced to swallow is that they’ve nominated a black man in a virulently racist country in a year when a “traditional” (white, male) Democratic nominee might have skated to the White House with landslide numbers. Instead they’ve got a candidate with that most endemic and pernicious of American handicaps — skin color. I don’t know what percentage of Americans will find themselves unable to vote for Obama because he’s black (many of them will convince themselves they are voting for McCain for other reasons); but the number is bound to be obscene. Obama may end up winning the popular vote as a result of unprecedented turnout in blue states, but as Andrew Sullivan pointed out recently, he may confront an electoral college nightmare scenario (not to mention yet another voter suppression disaster) which places the big prize completely out of reach. Unfotunately, the deck may be stacked against Obama and there’s nothing he can do about it. Let’s try to be clear about what kind of country we live in and not pretend that we’re about to have a “free election.”
June 9, 2008 at 10:39 pm
I’m not arguing that Kerry is stronger, but the typical right-wing perception of Democrats being weak-kneed pacifists doesn’t account for Bush’s long history of weak-knees. It’s the media meme I’m talking about. It’ll come up hardcore as the right starts using the Harvard effete clause against Obama versus POW hero.
I could pillory the Dems for again snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, but if the left is to lose the GE, at least they practiced what they preach and put up two diverse candidates. And I’m not sure that this isn’t the exact right time to see if we can win based on the absolute ball of confusion that is the GOP. I really don’t know.