There is a new article up on Time.com in which Joe Klein goes through why he believes we are winning right now in this election. I think I pretty much agreed with everything he said, so I thought I'd share the article with you.
He begins with the story of Obama and Petraeus in Iraq, and how the men respectfully disagreed and agreed on certain things, ending with:
But the Senator from Illinois had laid down his marker: if elected President, he would be in charge. Unlike George W. Bush, who had given Petraeus complete authority over the war — an unprecedented abdication of presidential responsibility (and unlike John McCain, whose hero worship of Petraeus bordered on the unseemly) — Obama would insist on a rigorous chain of command.
So basically, Obama proved he would be a LEADER even when faced with people who knew more than him about a particular situation. I think one of the things I admire most about Obama is the fact that he can disagree with someone without being disagreeable. Even in the debates where his own positions were clearly being distorted, he found a way to point out his TRUE positions without coming off like a jerk. That's a great quality to have. As someone who frequently likes to find the middle ground, this is a quality that I love.
Barack Obama has prospered in this presidential campaign because of the steadiness of his temperament and the judicious quality of his decision-making. They are his best-known qualities. The most important decision he has made — the selection of a running mate — was done carefully, with an exhaustive attention to detail and contemplation of all the possible angles. Two months later, as John McCain's peremptory selection of Governor Sarah Palin has come to seem a liability, it could be argued that Obama's quiet selection of Joe Biden defined the public's choice in the general-election campaign. But not every decision can be made so carefully. There are a thousand instinctive, instantaneous decisions that a presidential candidate has to make in the course of a campaign — like whether to speak his mind to a General Petraeus — and this has been a more difficult journey for Obama, since he's far more comfortable when he's able to think things through. "He has learned to trust his gut," an Obama adviser told me. "He wasn't so confident in his instincts last year. It's been the biggest change I've seen in him."
I like that Barack Obama likes to think things through, and I can understand his reluctance to make snap decisions. With that being said, I'd much rather have OBAMA making snap decisions, than McCain. We see where McCain's snap decisions get us, in a war with Iraq, suspending his campaign for no reason, the selection of Sarah Palin, etc. Obama's gut seems to be more in tuned to reality, and I think the fact that he's used to thinking about every detail and that in the past he taught law (which means you have to pay attention to every little detail, especially with Con. Law which is constantly changing).
Klein asked Barack how he makes his gut decisions, and I think he really respected the fact that Barack didn't just recite talking points to him, but actually thought about what Klein was actually asking him. That quality drives some people nuts because when Obama is actually THINKING through something, his responses tend to be really slow. But again, I like the idea of a President who has a brain and can think for himself.
Another favorite quality that Barack has that I love is his non-predilection to drama. I love that we have a drama-free campaign, that and the fact that it's so inclusive of everyone is why out campaign continues to grow. It really is a big tent, we don't turn anyone away. We don't say "you're not welcome here, you voted for Bush."
[W]hile Obama has followed a fairly traditional political path in this campaign, his strongest — and most telling — moments have been those when he followed his natural no-drama instincts. This has been confusing to many of my colleagues and to me, at times, as well: his utter caution in the debates, his decision not to zing McCain or even to challenge him very much, led me to assume — all three times — that he hadn't done nearly as well as the public ultimately decided he had. McCain was correct when he argued that Obama's aversion to drama led him to snuggle a bit too close to the Democratic Party's orthodoxy. But one of the more remarkable spectacles of the 2008 election — unprecedented in my time as a journalist — was the unanimity among Democrats on matters of policy once the personality clash between Obama and Hillary Clinton was set aside. There was no squabbling between old and new Dems, progressives and moderates, over race or war or peace. This was a year for no-drama Democrats, which made Obama as comfortable a fit for them as McCain was awkward for the Republican base.
The best way to throw off people who thrive on drama is to not engage in drama. I think that's something that drive the press crazy (as Klein points out in the article).
A true defining point in this campaign, in my non-professional opinion) came during the financial crisis. Obama was calm, steady, and re-assuring,and McCain was erratic.
And at the crucial moment of the campaign — the astonishing onset of the financial crisis — it was Obama's gut steadiness that won the public's trust, and quite possibly the election. On the afternoon when McCain suspended his campaign, threatened to scuttle the Sept. 26 debate and hopped a plane back to Washington to try to resolve the crisis, Obama was in Florida doing debate prep with his top advisers. When he was told about McCain's maneuvers, Obama's first reaction — according to an aide — was, "You gotta be kidding. I'm going to debate. A President has to be able to do more than one thing at a time." But there was a storm brewing among Obama's supporters in Congress and the Beltway establishment. "My BlackBerry was exploding," said an Obama aide. "They were saying we had to suspend. McCain was going to look more like a statesman, above the fray."
Klein then goes through how Obama has grown over the last 22 months before ending with this paragraph:
If he wins, however, there will be a different challenge. He will have to return, full force, to the inspiration business. The public will have to be mobilized to face the fearsome new economic realities. He will also have to deliver bad news, to transform crises into "teachable moments." He will have to effect a major change in our political life: to get the public and the media to think about long-term solutions rather than short-term balms. Obama has given some strong indications that he will be able to do this, having remained levelheaded through a season of political insanity. His has been a remarkable campaign, as smoothly run as any I've seen in nine presidential cycles. Even more remarkable, Obama has made race — that perennial, gaping American wound — an afterthought. He has done this by introducing a quality to American politics that we haven't seen in quite some time: maturity. He is undoubtedly as ego-driven as everyone else seeking the highest office — perhaps more so, given his race, his name and his lack of experience. But he has not been childishly egomaniacal, in contrast to our recent baby-boomer Presidents — or petulant, in contrast to his opponent. He does not seem needy. He seems a grown-up, in a nation that badly needs some adult supervision.
And now for what I'm sure you all are waiting for, pictures!
These are the pictures from Virginia yesterday:
Barack on Ellen again:
Senator Obama was on CBS' Early Show this morning and discussed why he feels he needs to go visit his grandmother tonight. Here's the video and transcript:
Watch CBS Videos Online
HARRY SMITH, co-host:
I caught up with Senator Obama yesterday in Richmond, Virginia, and asked him about leaving the campaign trail at such a crucial time to visit his
grandmother.
Lincoln said, "All I ever hope to be I owe to her," in speaking about his
mother.
Senator BARACK OBAMA: Yeah.
SMITH: Your grandmother was very much like a mother...
Sen. OBAMA: Absolutely.
SMITH: ...to you. How important is this trip?
Sen. OBAMA: It's very important to me. You know, my mother was a single
mom, so she raised me with the help of my grandparents. And so my
grandmother, my grandfather and my mom, they're really the people who took
care of me all throughout my childhood. My grandmother's the last one left.
She has really been the rock of the family, the foundation of the family.
Whatever strength, discipline that I have, it comes from her.
SMITH: You've said in the past that you regretted your own mother's illness, and her death came so quickly you didn't have time to get back to see her.
Sen. OBAMA: Got there too late. We knew that she wasn't doing well but, you know, the diagnosis was such where we thought we had a little more time and we didn't. And so I want to make sure that I don't--I don't make the same mistake twice.
SMITH: Some people say there's risk involved in this, with so little time
left.
Sen. OBAMA: Yeah. Well, the--you know, I think most people understand that
if you're not caring for your family, then you're probably not the kind of
person who's going to be caring for other people.
SMITH: I want to talk about some campaign issues, not the least of which is your running mate, Joe Biden, talked about, `Well, Barack Obama's going to be tested within the first six months.' John McCain jumped on that and said, `I don't need to be tested, I'm ready.' Are you more ready to be president of the United States than John McCain?
Sen. OBAMA: I tell--all I can say is this. We've had over the last couple
of months, I think, an interesting series of tests. And I think that I have been steadier. I think my advisers and my team and my organization, what we've built has performed with the kind of calm resolve and deliberation that the White House needs right now. Any president is going to be tested by the enormity of the challenges that we face.
SMITH: The rancorous tone of this campaign--I was with John McCain on Monday, and I said, `Our poll data shows that it's actually hurting you.' He says, `I wouldn't be doing it if he weren't doing it.'
Sen. OBAMA: Well, look, I mean, politics is tough. But I will say this. I
don't think there's any equivalence between what we've been doing and what
John McCain's been doing. Witness some of the comments that have been made
just over the last several months, his--last several weeks. Socialistic, you know, pals around with terrorists. I mean, just the kinds of stuff that I can't imagine saying about an opponent of mine.
SMITH: Whoever gets elected president somehow has to put their arm around the whole country and say, `We're in this together.'
Sen. OBAMA: Yeah.
SMITH: Can you do that?
Sen. OBAMA: I can. And I think that's the tone that we've set from the
beginning of this campaign. I mean, look, is Sean Hannity suddenly going to get on the airwaves and say, `You know, I was wrong about this Obama guy. He's my man'? No, that's not going to happen. I mean, there's going to be a certain wing of the Republican Party that is, you know, dug in and resistant to the notion that we need to change direction.
SMITH: You close your eyes for a moment and you think about election night.
Do you win?
Sen. OBAMA: Well, I wouldn't have gotten in this race if I didn't think I
was going to win. If it's tied going into Election Day, I like our chances
because I think we've got enormous enthusiasm on the ground.
SMITH: And just days to go.
UPDATE: Okay, this video is awesome. It's a parody of T.I.'s "whatever you like, and listening to the lyrics, they put a lot of work into this. . .
from ghettolectual's diary
UPDATE #2: I did do a diary yesterday, here are the pics from the Miami Rally in case you missed it:
UPDATE #3 Here's the live feed of the rally in Indiana The rally's over, he's off to Hawaii :o)
UPDATE #4: MoveOn has a new ad featuring a talking Moose, I like it:
and as requested, here's the still image of the child's drawing:
UPDATE #5:
h/t NCDem Amy
Don't forget, this is OUR campaign so get out there and VOLUNTEER! And VOTE EARLY!