Though Hillary Clinton was my first choice (more frontline experience in the White House, a husband who has some worthwhile credits on his resume), I'm okay with Barack Obama as the Democratic presidential nominee. I say that with the qualifier, "I just hope he knows what he's doing." It's hard to imagine anyone doing worse than what we've had over the last eight years without making a conscious effort to do so. Curiously while George Bush, Jr.'s approval rating is about 33%, McCain has decided the key to the public's heart would be to continue the policies that have made the sitting president so unpopular.
While a split screen of Obama and McCain make it seem obvious to me that Obama is the shoo in -- a slender guy with high cheekbones and a smartly tailored suit next to a guy who looks like he's been through the ringer, who makes weak attempts at Ronald Reagan-esque witticisms -- my dad and the 70+ blue collar gang he e-mails with see it differently. "When white folks get in there they're going to vote for somebody white!" I love hearing that while Barack Obama addresses an arena filled with 20,000 people, most of them white, as the white candidate speaks to a few hundred and gets golf applause.
After hearing about the death of Harvey Korman recently I rented
Blazing Saddles for the first time in over a decade, and that movie got me thinking. What if Barack Obama is secretly Karl Rove's masterpiece? Karl Rove as Headley LaMarr, with his eyes set on stealing the land of the people of Rock Ridge, or perhaps stealing some votes? "What kind of sheriff could I send in who's very appearance would drive the people from the land? AHA!" So here comes Sheriff Obama, and the knees begin to knock of the 60-and-up demographic who are the most likely to vote. So a weak, seemingly throwaway, sacrifice candidate like John McCain cakewalks into the Oval Office after all.
Come on, all you old redneck haters! We can't let Headley LaMarr steal our town! Let's rally around the sheriff and drive LaMarr and his henchmen back to Grauman's Chinese Theater! What do you say?
Yeah, he wants to remain in Iraq, but only because he sees the necessity. Yeah, we f**ked up the Iraq War, but McCain realizes shrugging our shoulders and leaving isn't a solution.
Mind you, this is coming from a person who still can't quite convince himself that voting for McCain is even a remote possibility. I'm sick of the GOP banking on their base acting like lemmings because their candidate "beats the alternative." Screw that.
You and I had similar thoughts about Obama. I walked through downtown St. Paul the night Obama was to speak, heal the sick, turn water into wine, etc., and I called my wife to say "He's the next president, period." John McCain could appear in the party room of my apartment building and I wouldn't go see him.
Good post.
Even a GOP spokesman was on CNN the night of the primaries and said about the McCain speech, "Our strategy is to lower expectations. We've got `em right where we want `em!" Funniest thing I've heard on TV in awhile.