Friends, Democrats, Kossaks, lend me your eyes;
I come not to bash Barack Obama, but to praise him.
Please don't get me wrong - Barack Obama is wonderful man, with tremendous qualities, smart as a whip, a soaring public speaker and even a good progressive... but if we select him, we are making the biggest mistake since the Edsel, New Coke, George McGovern, and dot coms rolled into one.
If he is the nominee I will happily vote for him - but then I will slit my wrists immediately afterwards because we are DOOMED!
DOOOMMMEEEDDDD!!! Do you hear me? If Barack Obama is our nominee, Karl Rove will feast on your children, the Ku Klux Klan will win enough congressional seats to form a coalition government with the remnants of the GOP, and I'm fairly certain Senator Obama will finish a distant 4th in the general election to whatever Republican is still standing, Ralph Wiggum, and Al Qaeda write-ins.
Yes. We. Are. So. Fucking. Doomed!
less snark, more substance after the flip
Or are we?
Let's make something clear. This diary isn't intended to pull Edwards or Clinton supporters onto the O train. I'm not calling for either John Edwards or Hillary Clinton to drop out. In fact, I wholeheartedly wish them another month of campaigning, regardless of tonight's results. We have a new frontrunner - and we should be kicking the tires, test driving him, making sure he's not just the right candidate, but a candidate capable of winning in November, and governing thereafter.
I write this diary to reassure you.
The O train is not filled (solely, at least) with hopeless dreamers and naive neophytes. It does not run alone on a hybrid fuel of honey-dripped rhetoric and pixie dust. We are not blindly barreling down the track, blissfully unaware of what awaits this summer, this fall, and the next 4 years.
It took me a long time to jump aboard the Obama bandwagon. Right through the end of 2007, I was clicking "No Fucking Clue" in the straw polls... save one early fall click for John Edwards. This - despite supporting Senator Obama in the 2004 Illinois primary for senate, despite being the least surprised at the reception to his convention speech.
This wasn't an easy decision because the alternate choices were also great choices. This wasn't a decision reached because I wanted to jump on a winning bandwagon, either.
Believe it or not, this was a cold, objective, and calculated decision. I've followed my heart before - in the summer of 2003, a feisty doctor out of Vermont dragged me into politics to an extent greater than I'd ever been before. I've listened to my heart.
That's not to say I haven't been reliable Democratic voter prior to that - in 2000, in 1998, 1996, 1994, and 1992 - my first election - I voted with my head. I voted Democratic because my head told me that Democratic policies were best for America and best for me.
This is the first time my support comes from my gut.
My gut tells me that Barack Obama is that once in a lifetime politician, that FDR, that JFK -- that politician with the potential to reshape the American political landscape. The Democrat that doesn't just win, that doesn't just have coattails -- but the Democrat that brings us a bumper crop of Democratic candidates, voters, and supporters for a generation to come. This is a Democrat that ignites a seismic shift in the way America views its parties, its policies, and its government.
Ronald Reagan ushered in an era of distrust in the government. Barack Obama will give us reason to trust again. Ronald Reagan taught America to blindly believe in the free market, to worship it as a golden calf. Barack Obama will bring balance back to a nation that believes in the free market - but doesn't toss our most vulnerable to its currents or leave its backbone -- the American middle class -- to its whims. Ronald Reagan gave us Reagan Democrats, Barack Obama will give us "Obama Republicans".
I wish I could give you a link, a cite, some shred of evidence, but my gut has no URL and my credentials extend no further than my userID number.
You can't buy a ticket on the O train with your head or even your heart. If you've spent the last 4-5 years analyzing every poll, grinding your teeth over every Bush lie, every harmful policy, and every mistake -- if you know your Senator, your congressperson, your state senator, your state representative -- you just aren't going to "get" Senator Obama by reading position papers or listening to speeches. This isn't because Senator Obama won't offer you what you're looking for -- but because Senators Edwards and Clinton offer the same thing. They really ARE great candidates. Support for Senator Obama comes from trusting him to be that Robert Kennedy we never got, that Franklin Roosevelt that, most of us anyway, have only read about.
A candidate Obama is certain to use frames and say things that you won't be pleased with -- I still have issues with his infamous Defense policy speech. There might even be policy scenarios where he'll be less than progressive pure -- Social Security and Universal Health Care, just to name a few - at least on the trail. I don't believe this is triangulation or capitulation - I believe that it's the honest discussion of an issue, an honest vetting that Senator Obama gives everyone on all sides.
I can only reassure you of Senator Obama's progressive credentials by telling you that Senator Obama scores:
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A 100% from Planned Parenthood.
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only a single negative mark on his ACLU scorecard -- that in a vote for lobbyist reporting and disclosure that was opposed by the ACLU on free speech grounds.
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a 96 from the League of Conservation voters - as well as being one of only 6 state senators to receive a 100% Environmental Record Voting Award from the Illinois Environmental Council.
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a 97.5 --- the highest of ANY Democratic candidate, first, second, or third tier --- from the Americans for Democratic Action (PDF), an independent liberal lobbying organization.
You can trust Senator Obama to put forth a progressive agenda in office.
I've heard the objections - we need a fighter, we cannot expect the powerful interests aligned against a progressive agenda, from the GOP to Wall Street to singe "Kumbaya" and cooperate.
Barack Obama is a fighter. I mean no disrespect towards the message of John Edwards - as I said, his passion was a major reason I took so long to line up behind Senator Obama - but Barack Obama is not going to play to your passion. He's not looking for a street fight with the enemy, however real that enemy may be. He's not afraid of a fight -- but not every successful General is a George Patton. Not every boxer is a Mike Tyson, raining powerful blows on the opponent.
Barack Obama is a consensus builder, a cajoler, a convincer, a compromiser who won't compromise his core beliefs. He's a pragmatist with a soul full of substance and ingrained beliefs. I'd invite you to read about Barack Obama's successful championing of taped confessions in Illinois - the bill looked hopeless, opposed not by just the GOP -- but the Fraternal Order of Police and the state's Democratic Attorney General. It passed the final vote 35-0 - a cakewalk that for a bill that first seemed doomed to die a committee death.
There's a misconception about Chicago politics - and the Chicago machine. Rather than a well-oiled, all Dems allowed clubhouse, the Chicago machine is more like the Ewing family from Dallas... a murky pool of shifting allegiances, alliances, ward bosses, and sycophants.
Barack Obama is not a product of the Chicago machine. In 2000, then state Senator Obama experienced first and only loss -- a primary challenge against longtime Democratic congressman Bobby Rush. While Rush had previously challenged and lost to Chicago Mayor-for-life Richard Daley, Rush was also a favorite of the Cook County Stroger machine.
In 2004, Obama faced a crowded primary against not just millionaire Blair Hull -- but State Comptroller Dan Hynes. Richard Daley's brother and John Stroger himself chaired Hynes' campaign... ask any Chicagoan about the prospects of challenging a candidate whose sports the names "Stroger" and "Daley" as co-chairs.
These days, Mayor-for-life Daley is singing a different tune about Senator Obama -- despite the fact that Obama backer and machine outsider Scott Waguespack knocked off machinist Ted Matlack in my own aldermanic ward.
Barack Obama has faced off against powerful interests -- and no, he didn't destroy them (No one -- NO ONE -- can completely destroy the Chicago machine), but neither has he given in to them. Their newfound support for him is grudging and won on his own terms.
I know folks question Barack Obama's commitment to transparency and limiting the influence of special interests - but in fact, Senator Obama led the fight to pass groundbreaking ethics legislation at both the state level and then again at the federal level, working with repugnant GOPer on the one issue Coburn shines -- transparency in pork reporting and then with Russ Feingold on lobbying reform to get the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act passed.
Senator Obama is not perfect. We can certainly find fault with staff, his legislative history, his speeches, and his rhetoric. We can do this with ALL our candidates. As wonderful and progressive as John Edwards and Hillary Clinton are -- none of our candidates will be and have always been all things to all progressives.
But- the record shows us that Barack Obama IS a progressive. Barack Obama IS a reformer who fights for transparency and limitations on special interests. Barack Obama IS a fighter.
In the end, though -- none of these points are going to move onto the O train because both Hillary Clinton and John Edwards can lay claim to same bona fides.
You feel Barack Obama in your guts. You see the crowds, the excitement, the turnout, the youth vote, the independents, even the Republicans. You'll hear anecdotes about lifelong GOPers - GOPers that even know Senator Obama doesn't agree with them on many issues - who can't help but support Senator Obama.
You feel Senator Obama - the hope, the change, all the flowing rhetoric - you feel in your gut that if we stand with Barack Obama, it can be a reality.
There is no rush - no need for Hillary Clinton or John Edwards to bow out or concede this primary. We'll save you a seat on the Obama bandwagon, just trust me:
We're NOT doomed :-)