I went and saw the Obama rally in Abington, PA today. Really, it was his standard stump speech with some extras about last nights VP debate and the current financial fiasco. Nothing particularly special about it since we've seen it on the news every night for a year.
However, watching the way people reacted to Obama after the speech in occurred to me that in politics there are two kinds of heroes. McCain is a hero in the traditional sense. People appreciate that they probably couldn't do what he did, and wouldn't want to. People probably come up to him and offer genuine thanks to him for his service on a very frequent basis. His heroism is real and I think everyone appreciates it, even those who don't support one iota of what he stands for politically. However, his heroism will fade from consciousness rather quickly when he passes. Fifty years from now he is likely to be a small footnote in the history of the 2nd half of the 20th century.
I was really taken aback by the reaction of the high school kids to Obama after getting to shake his hand. The adulation was almost from a different era, when heroes were not so available for public consumption. You could see it was a moment these kids would be talking about to their kids and grandkids. A story that will be told again and again in barbershops and churches...back in 2008, I got to meet Barack Obama. The way a catholic from Boston might speak of how he met JFK in 1960, or how a southern black man might remember having heard a sermon from MLK, or even how an old man in NYC might tell him grandkids about the time he got an autograph from Babe Ruth when he was a kid. He is a transcendent political figure. He will be known for generations, regardless of how his presidency turns out (or even if he somehow loses). By the time those high schools kids are in there 50's and 60's the stories will have grown. They will not only have shaken his hand, but they will have been onstage, offered advice, or told him to grow a beard....
The speech was nothing special. It wasn't nearly as memorable as the speech I heard John Kerry give in Love Park on the eve of the election in 2004. There weren't as many people and the stakes were lower. The reactions were different though, people were more invested in Obama than Kerry, it clearly meant more. Leaving I got the impression that I was watching not a politician, but a budding historical figure, a younger Lincoln or FDR. Joe Schmo on the street from my generation (I'm 28) can probably name three (Lincoln, Kennedy, FDR?) non-founding father presidents who weren't president within the last 40 years. People are going to remember President Obama...I can only hope he lives up to the billing which history will give him.