At Huff post today, I read this piece by Frank Schaeffer.
Aside from his general optimism, he makes two points that I have not heard enough about. Maybe these will work in persuasion, in GOTV, in getting our own grandmothers and other fellow White Americans over their reluctance.
One, Obama is a really nice guy.
Two, he is very brave. He is calm and cool when every day he goes out knowing that he is in real physical danger.
As Schaeffer points out, the Presidency is dangerous to White presidents. Obama was appointed Secret Service protection earlier than anyone else running for president. Police arrested a man with a gun in his car near his home.
Now, as the election heats up, like steam escaping from a river rock in a bonfire, we are seeing cracks form and hearing loud ugly pops in the body politic. The McCain surrogates can not let go off vicious and inflammatory charges. People have been yelling threats at McCain-Palin rallies to the tune of "terrorist" and "kill him!"
The economic crisis, as it spreads into consumer confidence drops, reduced consumption, and possibly a deeper recession will exacerbate people's fears and invoke zero sum gain thinking.
Yes, McCain was resolute in his POW experience. But Obama shows his own courage in the face of threats of violence.
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5 comments:
I was struck by this line as well:
"Speaking as a believing Christian I see the hand of a merciful God in Obama's candidacy."
That's a bit over the top, but at some point you have to admit that not every vote is based on an appeal to reason. I don't like to think of Obama as our last, best hope, but he's definitely the best hope we've had in a long time.
Speaking as someone who greatly admires Hillary Clinton, it's kinda amusing at this point to look at her two main campaign themes. She began with "it's inevitable," trying to dispirit would-be challengers with her advanced position and funding.
When Obama matched her fundraising via grassroots, her campaign switched to "I'm the electable one."
Neither selling point turned out to be so accurate (yes, the election isn't settled, but it's hard to argue at this point that Obama isn't "electable").
Ben, I miss the connection of what you are saying to what Schaeffer is saying. (Or me).
Not so clear, was it. And maybe not so connected - but hey, this is the comments section of a blog!
FWIW, this was my thought process:
I, too, think of Obama as a significantly-better-than-we-might-have-expected candidate, a thought stimulated by your post and the first comment. This is in contrast to Hillary, who would have been a perfectly good, a-little-better-than-we-might-have-expected (and better than Kerry) candidate.
From that perspective, it's interesting that Hillary didn't campaign against Obama so much on the merits (aside from the 3 am business) as much as on the electability. It's almost as if she conceeded "yeah, he's really good, we know that, but those independent voters won't go for it."
But even that concession doesn't appear to hold up. Which is kinda cool.
I get it now. Thanks for clarifying.
Lets go for the landslide victory now.
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