I've got to admit to some possible ageist thinking in the last few months as the media announced the new phenom, Barack Obama. I thought he was a cute kid, but I was waiting for him to grow into that rich baritone that doesn't yet fit inside his boyish, lanky frame.
I was underwhelmed when the queens of daytime TV anointed him as their man. They hate women like me; why in the world would I care what they anoint?
As the primary season has lurched forward, I'm still polishing my opinion of him.
Obama is my favorite kind of liberal
He's epitomizes the beauty of true liberal thought based on sincerity, goodness and mainline American protestantism. I know and love people just like Obama. Occasionally, we'd have a wunderkind like Barack in my church's pulpit whose exhortation that "you are your brother's keeper" pounded the congregation with compelling, heart-to-head, emotional phraseology. I relate to Obama's Christian language inthe same way and I honestly believe he is what he says he is. He had a hard upbringing with absent parents. However, his people on both sides of the house were educated, interesting, liberal people. He's a natural Democrat, old school.
Barack is as pretty as a new penny, I'll admit. And I'm beginning to like how he has avoided offensively utilizing a race-tinged attack so far. He seems to be an engaging, charismatic, reasonable person and could be a good, mainstream, centrist Democrat president...maybe some day when he learns to take a stand on issues instead of merely voting "present," for instance. I predict he will graduate to junior statesman following this real life battle with the Clintons. If he moderates his politics as a result of experience and pain, he could. Some day. Not today. He's way too young. His inability to see the Islamist threat is a problem.
I feel sorry for Senator Obama. I wish the black political establishment would thumb their noses at the Clintons. Some of the braver ones have stepped forward...to which Bill responds, "oh, sure...like I'm so afraid of John Kerry."
The rest might have two reasons they can't abandon the Clinton ship: one, they are politically and personally beholden to them, thus frightened of them; and two, the establishment is not willing to step out on a limb because of Obama's youth and naivete. I doubt he'll even be given the key to the REAL men's room until after the convention. Remember who Obama's supporters are: black voters, black women. The pols aren't going to risk their comfortable positions to support a kid like Obama, unless they have something on the Clintons that all of us can't wait to hear. What a knock out punch that'd be, huh? I can always dream, can't I?
Hey, such is politics. Now the devil's due has come. The black elders must be sweating it out, soul-wise. They've got their dream candidate (Heck. Even I might vote for the guy some day, when he grows up). They've got this political generation's great black hope. They should be throwing rose petals in his path. Instead of rallying behind Senator Obama, encouraging their voters to maintain a civil tongue, working through their intraparty racial, money and generational issues-- Charlie Wrangel and others choose to squander this opportunity to to put the first black man in the White House who isn't asked for another drink.
Instead of fulfilling their own long-forgotten dreams, instead of sharing their righteous front line experience and lessons learned to assist this young man to levels higher than even they can imagine...instead of having a pseudoblack president like Willie, they can have the real thing. But instead, they are obligated to their royal highnesses' destiny.
As Bill Bendix ("Life of Riley" ca. 1950s) would say, "What a revoltin' development this is."
Thanks for the read.
I was underwhelmed when the queens of daytime TV anointed him as their man. They hate women like me; why in the world would I care what they anoint?
As the primary season has lurched forward, I'm still polishing my opinion of him.
Obama is my favorite kind of liberal
He's epitomizes the beauty of true liberal thought based on sincerity, goodness and mainline American protestantism. I know and love people just like Obama. Occasionally, we'd have a wunderkind like Barack in my church's pulpit whose exhortation that "you are your brother's keeper" pounded the congregation with compelling, heart-to-head, emotional phraseology. I relate to Obama's Christian language inthe same way and I honestly believe he is what he says he is. He had a hard upbringing with absent parents. However, his people on both sides of the house were educated, interesting, liberal people. He's a natural Democrat, old school.
Barack is as pretty as a new penny, I'll admit. And I'm beginning to like how he has avoided offensively utilizing a race-tinged attack so far. He seems to be an engaging, charismatic, reasonable person and could be a good, mainstream, centrist Democrat president...maybe some day when he learns to take a stand on issues instead of merely voting "present," for instance. I predict he will graduate to junior statesman following this real life battle with the Clintons. If he moderates his politics as a result of experience and pain, he could. Some day. Not today. He's way too young. His inability to see the Islamist threat is a problem.
I feel sorry for Senator Obama. I wish the black political establishment would thumb their noses at the Clintons. Some of the braver ones have stepped forward...to which Bill responds, "oh, sure...like I'm so afraid of John Kerry."
The rest might have two reasons they can't abandon the Clinton ship: one, they are politically and personally beholden to them, thus frightened of them; and two, the establishment is not willing to step out on a limb because of Obama's youth and naivete. I doubt he'll even be given the key to the REAL men's room until after the convention. Remember who Obama's supporters are: black voters, black women. The pols aren't going to risk their comfortable positions to support a kid like Obama, unless they have something on the Clintons that all of us can't wait to hear. What a knock out punch that'd be, huh? I can always dream, can't I?
Hey, such is politics. Now the devil's due has come. The black elders must be sweating it out, soul-wise. They've got their dream candidate (Heck. Even I might vote for the guy some day, when he grows up). They've got this political generation's great black hope. They should be throwing rose petals in his path. Instead of rallying behind Senator Obama, encouraging their voters to maintain a civil tongue, working through their intraparty racial, money and generational issues-- Charlie Wrangel and others choose to squander this opportunity to to put the first black man in the White House who isn't asked for another drink.
Instead of fulfilling their own long-forgotten dreams, instead of sharing their righteous front line experience and lessons learned to assist this young man to levels higher than even they can imagine...instead of having a pseudoblack president like Willie, they can have the real thing. But instead, they are obligated to their royal highnesses' destiny.
As Bill Bendix ("Life of Riley" ca. 1950s) would say, "What a revoltin' development this is."
Thanks for the read.
