Let's not get sucked into the post-Iowa Chris Matthews-esque frenzy. Iowa is not that big a deal. Clinton is still the national front-runner in several major states, such as California, and she has more money (though, not a lot more). I don't yet think this is Lincoln and Concord - yes that's right, Chris Matthews compared the results of the Iowa Caucus to the foundation of the Republic - but let's wonder, because if this chance is later dashed and we don't take the opportunity to believe now, we'll regret it.
Could Barack Obama be the next President of the United States? How crazy would that be? On spec he's not the traditional candidate - African American, a name that CNN (for shame) can easily typo and that isn't your regular Main Street name, fairly inexperienced in government, open and honest about past indiscretions - but we are looking at the possibility of an inauguration on January 20th 2009 which will change the way that Americans think about themselves. The President is such a symbol for the nation, the person that every American looks to to lead and protect them. And that person could soon be an African American by the name of Barack Obama.
It's a giddy thought that America has come so far from the turbulent 1960s. Martin Luthur King said 'I have a dream' and 40 years later, that dream may finally be fulfilled to its highest potential. The glass ceiling for African Americans will have been smashed, and black Presidents will no longer only be found on compelling yet paper-thin TV series that track a near-superhero save the USA in real time.
He also presents for my generation something we haven't had yet, our RFK. In my generation I haven't known a politician who was that inspiring. Sure, Bill Clinton was charming, but he wasn't all that inspiring. George W Bush had a couple of moments in the wake of 9.11, but wrecked those with...well, everything else he said. I wondered if maybe modern politics didn't allow for those kinds of figures anymore, or whether they even existed at all and people of the older generations just look back with rose-tinted glasses. Young people respond so well to Obama because he's something we haven't seen in our lifetimes, only read about in books.
And I don't think experience means much. JFK was a first-term Senator and a one term Congressman. LBJ had a mountain of experience and he started the war in Vietnam. Bill Clinton didn't have any federal experience, and he wasn't a bad President. Inexperience isn't necessarily a handicap - as long as someone's got a strong intellect and appoints a team of advisers capable of filling in his experience gaps until he fills them himself, then he's qualified to be President of the United States.
I believe, and I'd like to go on doing so.
1 comment:
JFK isn't the best candidate for a 'lack of experience' President. It did cause him to listen to the as then pre-pubescent CIA desperate to invade Cuba...it's only after a few years in office that he started to kick off as a true leader, once again regarding Cuba. Shame we cannot judge him on the rest of his Presidency.
However, JFK first sent out military Commanders to train southern Viet Namese to find, later sending troops in to fight, though hidden from the public at first later emerging. I would say this was the true start of Viet Nam. Though admitedly, LBJ put fuel to the flame and made it into a continuing war.
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