Last night a Hillary-supporting friend and I drove our kids to see the Aquabats in Pomona (a town about 40 miles east of LA, where we live.) On the way there, the conversation grew very animated as I tried, not to tear down her candidate, but to build up my own, and explain why I support Obama so very wholeheartedly. I think I may have persuaded my dear friend. (Indeed we drove straight past Pomona for sixteen miles before we realized we'd missed our offramp! The kids were a bit peeved!) So here's what I told my friend Vicki:
Obama's message of hope is derided by many in the media and elsewhere as naive, and "lacking in substance." Just think what is being said there. I am 47 years old, and for the first time in my entire life, young people in their millions are responding passionately to the oratorical skill of a politician. Permitting themselves to be moved by his ideas, joining together with him to envision a way out of the political cynicism and even despair we've come to accept as a kind of permanent status quo.
Far from being shallow or "lacking in substance," this is the most important political event of my lifetime, and I am so proud to be part of it.