Juice, I agree that the Republican candidates are extremely poor in this race. Please don’t misunderstand me: I loathe all of these candidates, with the exception of Ron Paul and POSSIBLY Bill Richardson or John Edwards. In fact, I believe the fact that so many people loathe the choices and the current administration has actually lead voters to lower their expectations and be less critical than they otherwise would be. We have feasted so long on slop that we are thrilled when we are fed anything that tastes a wee bit better. It’s a horrible position for the American electorate to find itself in, but here we are.
At any other time in American history, a candidate with Obama’s experience and lack of substance would not have garnered nearly so much attention. But we are desperate for heroes and saviors as we have never been before, and that leaves us vulnerable, as you said, to voting for someone “without knowing exactly what [we] are voting for.” Very sad.
My problem with Obama, as I said in my first post, is that voters are being mislead to believe that he can deliver more than he can — or even, as I deeply suspect, more than he truly wants to. Say what you will about Bush, but he makes no bones about who he represents and where his interests lie: with the wealthy elite and corporate America. For that reason, I did not vote for him. It is much, much more difficult to discern where Obama’s true allegiance lies — partly because of his extreme lack of experience, and partly because he’s so much more media-packaged than most candidates that it’s hard to perceive what lies at his core. I’m not a Republican, but I could easily get behind Colin Powell for president because I knew what he stood for, didn’t feel he was schmoozing me, and felt confident in his experience.
I stand beside my earlier observations: having known him, I have always felt there was something pleasant, but terribly insincere about him. When he spoke I felt the satisfaction of having eaten a heavy Chinese meal, then an hour later feeling empty and having to remind myself what I just ate. Granted, that didn’t matter to me much as president of a law review — and I would like to reiterate that I VOTED for him then. However, this concerns me much more in someone seeking the presidency of the United States.
“Obama will energize the Democratic base, enlarge the voter pool by appealing to minorities and young voters and he will appeal to moderate white voters who will say “I really like this guy” without knowing exactly what they are voting for.”
My voting inclinations aside, the question of whether Obama can get elected will, I believe, become largely an academic one. Obama will be the true test of whether racism in this country is alive and well. I think we saw that it was doing just fine in Tenessee last year when Harold Ford was summarily trounced. He was a strong candidate, articulate, extremely intelligent. I would have voted for him if I were a TN resident. But that contest was reduced to race, and even the mainstream media picked up on that. Don’t forget that more of this country resembles Tennessee than Southern California or Chicago.
Lastly, if Obama is truly the threat you believe he presents to the establishment, then keep in mind that voting irregularities can and will probably crop to keep him away from the throne. If the establishment feared little Al Gore enough to enlist the aid of the Supreme Court to keep him away from the White House, I can only imagine what forces will be at work to keep a black man out.
