Sigh. I keep waiting for this stupid FISA issue to die down but it just keeps going and going and going and going. So at long last I'll weigh in but I'll keep it short.
Anyone who read DailyKos has probably heard the highlights of Obama's stump speech many times, but as you know his rationale for running NOW instead of "waiting his turn" comes down to three things:
Our nation is at war, our planet is in peril and the dream that so many generations fought for feels like it’s slowly slipping away.
Folks, Obama is running because he thinks this is a uniquely critical time in the history of this country and possibly of humanity itself. If you think that's hyperbole then you haven't been paying attention. Let's recap what's at stake here after the fold.
Our nation is at war.
Folks, Obama is running against a candidate that thinks we are in the early stages of World War III. We're running against a party that sincerely believes that we are in an existential "Clash of Civilizations" agains an Islamofascist movement that wants to establish a worldwide Caliphate. This is not a joke. These people actually believe this. Do you want their finger on the red button? And that's not to even mention the wingnuts that believe that they are carrying out biblical prophecy by starting wars in the Middle East. Considering the president of Iran also belongs to an apocalyptic religious sect this is a BAD combination. Folks, as horrific as the last World War was, it was fought with weapons that were crude compared to the devastation that can be wrought with today's arsenal. As Einstein said:
I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.
Our planet is in peril
Folks, every day we see the effects of the strain that almost 7 billion people are putting on the planet. Only the wingnut climate change deniers can fail to see that the planet seems to be out of equilibrium and threatening to spin out control. Who do you trust more with the environment? Obama or McCain? Only Obama is serious about the environment. Only Obama is telling the American people that we will need to make sacrifices to save the environment. Only Obama has the desire and the ability to rally the world around this cause instead of treating the rest of the world with condescension and contempt.
The dream that so many generations fought for feels like it’s slowly slipping away.
Folks, for the last 25 or 30 years we have been devolving into a new Gilded Age. The economic reforms that built the worlds strongest middle class and strongest economy have slowly unraveled until at last we have an inequality that surpasses that of the Roaring 20's and matches that of the Gilded Age. We can either continue to devolve into a primitive economy where the middle class dissapears and a landed aristocracy lords over the landless masses, or we can restore balance to our economy and provide the greater economic equality of opportunity that is the true engine for innovation and growth. Who would you rather have be steward of the economy? A self-made man who overcame huge odds to achieve the highest pinnacles of achiement and married a like-minded woman? Or a spoiled rotten son and grandson of admirals who married an heiress so he could entrench himself in the aristocracy?
Folks, let's not lose sight of what's at stake here. The choice in this election could not be more stark. Are civil rights important? Of course - they are vitally important. No one needs to tell Obama THAT of all things! But Obama has chosen what his top priorities are. In my mind he has communicated them loud and clear, and has had probably the most consistent message of any Democrat I can remember running in my lifetime. The fact is you can't do everything at once. You have to pick your battles.
Obama has decided that there are certain issues that are so vitally important that he needs to save ALL his political capital to fight the titanic battles to come. He just can't spare one iota of political capital from issues that would detract from his top 3: the War, the Environment, and the Economy.
And I can't say I disagree with him.