Promise vs. promises
What makes Senator Obama so appealing to so many is not his promises, in fact I like some of Senator Clinton's policy ideas better and (dare I say here) even a few GOP ideals better, its his Promise. It's not that his promises don't matter, indeed they are part of the Promise, but the Promise itself is so much larger. The Promise of Obama is that things do not have to be the way they are. Again, not just policy, but the way of the political ethos. His Promise is what makes him popular even with people who disagree with him. The country is tired, frustrated and fed up with an ethos of destruction by dishonesty. The Promise of Obama is that we can move beyond destruction to construction; we can move beyond being right or winning while losing to engaging in honest debate. The Promise of Obama is that we don't have to hate and degrade those we disagree with.
I accept that Senator Obama's promises will change, he will disappoint, make mistakes and be hypocritical at times. I don't expect him to be infallible. Nor would I expect anyone to be infallible. But the problem is that Senator's Clinton's and McCain's campaigns don't even try to be honest, as don't most politicos. They don't even begin at this point. I'm not suggesting that they are personally pathological, as some are suggesting. They are probably lovely people who care deeply about others. But the debate has to at least begin at a higher plane. We have to at least start off being able to take them at their word. What might it look like if we actually believed what politicians said and then lived as if their words were true?
The Promise of Obama is not wrapped up in what his promises are, it is wrapped up in what he represents. He represents possibility. He represents a new beginning. He represents what we want to be on our best days. It's not that he is fully these things, it's that his candidacy symbolizes them. Senator Bayh, my senator, represented that for me as well. But now his Promise is tarnished. Not because he made a mistake; unfortunately the technique is typical. But because this whole "bitter" feud is paradigmatic of the same ethos of destruction by dishonesty. And he is up front and center on the wrong side. I seriously thought more of him than that. What makes this destruction ethos so unpalatable, among other things, is that it is based fully on posturing and stagecraft. And when your political existence has this foundation then honest debate, about anything, is rendered impossible. This is why the country simply can't chew on it anymore. It has left a bitter taste in our mouths.
[CLARIFICATION]
I am not claiming that Senator Obama's Promise is tarnished, rather that Senator Bayh's Promise is tarnished by his disingenuous support for the "bitter" comment. My apologies for the confusion.