Let's suspend for a moment, our typical expectations of a Democratic nominee for POTUS. Typically we look at things like leadership, integrity, experience, familiarity with the issues and electability.
We argue back and forth over who has the best position on this issue or who raised the most money for that candidate, and still we seem to come up short.
For once, it would be nice to have a general election where the two candidates are not 50/50. We can argue about how Gore really won in 2000 or about all the election fraud that has occurred, but the reality is that these men (Bush, Gore and Kerry) could only manage to persuade just under half of the voting population that they were the man for the job. SIMPLY UNNACCEPTABLE!
An opportunity lies before us... the opportunity to choose a nominee that has a fresh face and may very well appeal to the majority of Americans. Let's take a look at some of Senator Obama's many redeeming qualities below the fold...
UPDATE: Just to clarify, I'm simply highlighting some of the positive things about Obama. This is not to say I prefer him over the other candidates, but that I think a lot of people are quick to come up with reasons not to support a candidate rather than what that candidate might do for our country.
- He's a newcomer - Voters are becoming tired of the same old names and faces who continue to populate corrupt Washington D.C. Like Edwards, as a relative newcomer, Senator Obama represents change and he represents the future.
- He is black - All of our Presidents from the first George W to the current one, have been wealthy, white, male landowners. A little archaic, don't you think? The land of the free has yet to elect a President who represents the progress we have made as a nation. I believe that electing a black president will lead to a huge shift in the dynamics of American politics. Finally, the Skull & Bones perception people have of Washington D.C. can be wiped clean. Young people and minorities will have a new motivation to become involved in the electoral process.
- He is trusted - The American people, whether justified or not, trust Barack Obama. They find him to be genuine and believe his words. And unlike other less articulate politicians who shall remain nameless (KERRY KERRY KERRY KERRY KERRY... who I still love anyway) people will actually stick around to listen to those words. If Kerry, Webb and Tester taught us anything, it's that being perceived as genuine is far more important than specific issue positions.
- He has bi-partisan appeal - Hillary Clinton feels the need to straddle the fence on every issue she can. If there's a spot in the center, she jumps at it... all in the effort of appealing to everyone, and it hasn't worked. Obama on the other hand has made a career out of highlighting what Americans share in common. He has taken the initiative to try and repair the poisonous perception of polarization (I LOVE ALLITERATION!) in this nation, and I have not seen anyone else attempt that with even the slightest degree of success.
Barack Obama is not simply the Anti-Hillary, he is the ANTI-BUSH. He's everything America wanted in a President but never got from 2001-2009. He is the change that Americans are looking for. Is it not true that American voters typically seek in a President, what they could not get from the previous one?
Barack Obama can be a door to the Democratic Party. He can be the calming voice that ushers millions of dissatisfied, apathetic voters back into the loving arms of our progressive movement. It's the temperament, stupid! It's the genuineness, stupid! It's a harmony, stupid! We can't run things the way W did, that's for sure... and I honestly don't believe any of our potentials would lead us in such a direction. But it is the narrative that Obama has woven, the message he is able to deliver to so many people who would otherwise close their ears that might finally lead us in a new direction and I would hate for his 'lack of legislating' to be the end of our support for him.
Let us not forget that as our union was coming apart at the seams before the Civil War, the man who held it all together had only served four terms in the Illinois General Assembly before becoming the President.