“It’s the integrity, stupid”: Let’s hope Obama is for real
(Monet: Sun breaking through fog)
I just watched the 30 minutes’ Obama ‘infomercial’ and I have to say that I was deeply impressed with the guy. I know that my normal stance on ANY politician comes close to that old Shakespeare quote: ‘A plague on both your houses.’ In my experience, politicians (need to) sell the most important bits of their soul to become successful in their (mostly very disgusting) trade.
Well, maybe Obama is one of those business-as-usual politicians and simply a better actor than most but it doesn’t feel that way. Against all my normal instincts & judgements - which, for my generation, have their roots in the final years of the failed Vietnam war, and Watergate, and the whole damned Cold War with its useless postering on both sides and its world wide filthy little wars and coups and torture etc - I feel that here, there just might be someone who is different.
I don’t know, of course - but I sincerely hope that time will tell; that he will get the opportunity to make good on these first impressions, or not, as the case may be.
Even without his candidacy, after the Rove/Cheney/Bush years, it would be a crime if the Republicans won - or stole - another term in the White House. With (what I’ve seen of) Obama as a possible president, it would be worse than a crime; it would be an obscenity.
Let’s hope that the polls are right, that potential Obama voters don’t get too overconfident to do their personal duty, that the Republican machine and all those new Conservative judges won’t manage to steal yet another election.
Let’s just hope.
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October 30th, 2008 at 06:14
I pray you are right–my inner instincts keeps going back to the old phrase—If it sounds too good to be true-it usually is…and that causes me concern..
We will know when we know…
Obama’s biggest problem is that he can not deliver on all his promises –no US president can without the congress.
and there is that niggling factor–If one tries to give too much “free” or relief to the masses –they give up -accept it and become a welfare state…I can say this –being on the low end of the scale—give me all those lovely “perks’ and I will take them and quit my job asap. I have voted for Obama but I think his “dream” is unrealistic… Even MLK did not begin his talks till a large sum of money was offered –he wanted no part of it—after payment–he had a Dream.
I hope and pray that Obama is not a snake-oil salesman.
The real deal would be a relief….
October 30th, 2008 at 06:39
Same here (as I also stated in the post.) He looks like the real deal BUT…
You just can’t tell, beforehand.
Still, if the choice is between an ‘unknown’ and a guy who actively reneged on his vow not to do sleazy Rove-type campaigning and who picked a person like Palin as a running mate/pinch-hitter president, then I will take the ‘unknown’ Obama over McCain’s ‘proven negatives’ any polling day.
The problem with political campaigns is that candidates are supposed to present their plans and also promise stuff. Most politicians - Democrat and Republican - actively lie about these things but even the ones who don’t lie about their intentions KNOW that they can’t always deliver the things they wish to do.
This year that last factor is even bigger than usual, with both the economy and the wars and whatever else may happen in these turbulent times.
In a way, I think that now we can only try to judge the (honest) intentions of the candidates. We almost know for certain that they won’t be able to deliver what they say they want to do, even when they mean to keep those promises, so what’s left is the choice whose intentions we trust.
That and both these candidates’ capacity to deal with whatever will be thrown at them while they would be in office.
Again, it’s more of a gut instinct than proof but if the way these men have fought their campaign can tell you anything about their leadership and management potential, I’d say McCain has proven himself to be erratic and much too quick on the draw, while Obama has looked the more solid and organized.
It is a pity McCain chose such a Godawful running mate. Otherwise, I would have finished on a positive note, by stating that both candidates would be, at least, a huge improvement on the incumbent president. With Palin a few heart-beats removed from such a presidency, I can’t really claim that. It’s a hard idea to fathom but she might even be much worse than the 43rd president was on his worst day.
Ah well, we’ll see how it will all play out. As always, thanks for dropping by, and for commenting,
J.