Obama, Oh Boy!

This morning from my couch in Boston I'm one of millions of bloggers who are saying one thing or another about the phenomenon of the Senator from Illinois.

Why is there such passion around him? Is he merely an icon of possibility, a sketch of hope clothed in the diversity of his color and personal history? Or, does he represent something else, something like what an educated person ought to sound like, or what a person of courage ought to behave like? His unique detachment from the foray of the ugliest political rhetoric makes him a magnet of abuse from the status quo. In short, he's dangerous to power hungry interests and he surely knows this, although he may not be able to overcome the perception that he's too hopeful, too idealistic and too green to face the enemy (whoever that is, but it's guaranteed to be always out there).

What does he represent to me, a woman, liberal, Democrat, just a year older than Hillary? He's growing into the role he may be destined to assume right before our eyes. The NYT has an article on this today.

Obama's unfolding story and compelling appeal goes something like this: be true to yourself and there's a possibility there worth fighting for. Fight long, fight hard, but don't give up the essential you. Trust the best in others and leave the rest behind. And then let the will of God, manifesting through the will of people, decide that if it's your time, so be it. Take it on with pride and joy.

Lessons from New Hampshire: Inevitability Loses

I was having a creepy feeling all day Monday and Tuesday last week when there was such a sudden and confident inevitability to Barack Obama overtaking Hillary Clinton and putting her out of the Democratic race. It seemed way too volatile to be true.

As an artist, a spiritualist and a lifelong terminal optimist, I have never been able to shake a propensity towards riding the wave of something changing for the better. But when the "upset" happened and Hillary beat Obama, it felt like an appropriate reality check. If I was thrilled that his Iowa win meant she was not inevitable, I also saw that her New Hampshire win meant he wasn't either.

What's wrong with inevitability? It has the sting of cynicism masquerading as reality. We do know that death and taxes are inevitable, but pretty much everything else is not. The New England Patriots are not inevitable to have a perfect season: anything could happen in a single football game. And anything can move voters in a variety of positions inside the voting booth. No Monday morning quarterbacking will ever figure out exactly what turned the pundits into embarrassed dimwits by Wednesday morning.

Inevitability takes us all off the hot seat of having to wrestle with decisions. If no one has anything locked up because of a high stakes "machine", all the better for democracy.

When we just don't know how the primaries will turn out, it means we have to turn out at the voting booth and choose, and if we're lucky, we'll have clear cut guidelines, and this year the Democrats probably can't lose. Obama has less baggage, but Hillary's has already been exposed. I think the battle against political cynicism has been won---inevitability loses. That's real democracy working.