On the other hand, I'm afraid that people are exhausted at the thought of fighting those fights yet again. After all, there is no winning these battles -- they just go on and on and on and on...
Now make no mistake: if Clinton gets the nomination, I'll be right there. We will pick up their swords and shields, our pitchforks and their torches, and we'll follow her one more time.
But her campaign is vulnerable. It is vulnerable to an appeal by someone from within her own ranks. That someone may say "Follow me to a different field of battle. Follow me to a place where we'll arrive first and be better prepared to shape that field to our advantage. Follow me to that field of battle where we can more easily take the offensive -- on our own terms."
That's Obama's challenge and it's pretty compelling. After all, why fight on a battlefield of your enemies' choosing?
That said, the Republicans will play the race card ("race excites the base"). Is Obama the best candidate to blunt that attack?
On one hand you could say no. After all, he's got a Muslim-sounding name and his skin is dark. Look at what they did with Max Clelland, morphing him into Osama bin Laden. Look at what they did to John McCain, whispering that he had fathered a black love child. Think what they'd do to Obama in places like Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Missouri -- states that the Democrats have to win if they are going to take the White House. How would Obama deal with that kind of campaign? And God knows he'll have his hands full once Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck show up to play.
On the other hand you could say he'd do just fine. His cohort is younger and better educated; they are looking to the future; they have more energy and will push the old ways aside. In fact, you could say that Obama himself is a symbol of reconciliation and resolution. He embodies the notion that we can get past these old problems.
Of course, Hillary can make that case as well.
But if I had to make a decision, right now, to follow a single candidate, my intuition tells me that it's Obama. To me, he seems to be the embodiment of the idea that our best days are still ahead of us. Where Hillary is blue chip, Obama is a growth stock.
I know that isn't a totally rational way of choosing, but that's how we make political choices: our brains use our hearts as a compass, right? I'm just saying.
Notice that I haven't even considered policy positions and white papers. This is partly because, in the long view, there isn't much difference between the two candidates, really. And more importantly, most of that stuff never survives the campaign anyway. Why get your hopes up? You deal with the Congress you have, not the one you wish you had. Besides, that stuff bores the crap out me most of the time. In a world of policy wonks and campaign hacks, I'm definitely a hack. So sue me.
So that's where I'm at right now -- you may see it differently. Regardless, whoever you choose, I hope (for all our sake) that it will be a candidate that gives you hope, and one who represents a brighter more optimistic future.
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