So now we’re in tough times. As a conservative, I love Obama because he is the most conservative candidate (why else). He may raise already astronomical taxes another notch (who cares for whom? It always comes out of MY pocket and ruins MY life! Selfish of me!). He may favor other things I might not like, and some of them may happen despite steely resistance on the part of members of Congress.

But the consequences of Obama’s election are wonderfully conservative: the repair of the black-white guilt trip, turning it into something else. That’s Number One. Of course, many blacks (like Jackson and Sharpton) will say “Obama is a betrayer, he’s not black, he’s not one of us, he doesn’t count!” As time goes on through an Obama presidency, that refrain will be heard far and wide, but no one will believe it. Number Two: No more conservative Likudniks running the foreign policy of the United States. No more AIPAC imperialism. No more international murder in the name of “freedom.” Not a small benefit from Obama, and an entirely conservative one. (I don’t regard neocons as anything but socialist-imperialists, not conservative at all.)

Number Three: He will bring style to the life of the country. It’s not just the fact that he can hit a 30 foot jump shot or knows the music of Lenny Kravitz and Bob Dylan. It is all the things that make him superior to Bill Clinton as well as the George Bushes. He will NOT be a legislator any more, but he will be a president.

Obama will do these things just be being elected! No matter what his other plans and policies.

He can’t disappoint me if he becomes president, because that’s all I want him to do. He is the man I want to lead this country. How he does it is partly my business, sure. But later, when we have gotten to that point. Not now! Promises now are only indicative of personality, not any real state of affairs.

McCain had Obama’s beliefs, I wouldn’t want him. But Obama he had many of McCain’s beliefs I would still want him. At a certain point, beliefs determine character, of course.

But I don’t want Obama’s positions, beliefs, policies, or promises. I want Obama.

Jim Devlin

I went back briefly in 2004. Hasn’t changed much although the cabin our family was in seems to have burned down and the island now has a single tree on it. Jackie told us it was planted in the memory of a friend.

Love to all,

susan

First of all, my big problem with Obama is obama-mania. This country has such a Hollywood publicity centered attitude of “who’s hot/who’s not?” “who’s likable?” “who’s hip?” to such a degree that people replace likability/”feeling” with substantive (forgive spelling errors, v. tired tonight)
discussion of how a candidate will do their job. After liberals decried the stupidity of “ignorant right-wing fundis” who chose W Bush based on his manner and appeal rather than focus on his political agenca, we now have a mass of liberals who are choosing Obama for the same reason, rarely do I hear discourse about his policy instead I hear the following (paraphrased from an NPR morning news show I heard in March)

Newscaster: I was in an Obama campaign volunteer headquarters and talked to the many avid supporters of Obama, and their reasons for supporting him pretty much sounded just like this woman ……from ……

Woman: When I was young I volunteered with Peace Corps but then became bitter with American policies and dropped out but then Obama came and I saw his face and heard him speak….(the latter part the woman has inspired gushy sounds in her voice)

So what we have is a bunch of people just not willing to lower themselves into American politics until this person comes along with very little real experience in American politics who makes them feel warm and fuzzy inside and all of the sudden everyone is such an expert on the entire continuum of the American political system that they know when to ignore it for 15 years, that inspirational Obama (whom Oprah- the woman who already conveniently breaks down the entriety of literature to bring us James Frey- is telling us to vote for) is the reason to get involved in politics again.
I hear basically NO DISCUSSION of Obama’s policies. In contrast I hear Hillary give quite well-thought answers about her policies. I hear how he doesn’t like what Washington has been doing for the past 20 years. This is VERY SCARY to me. The Washington insiders who have been badly running this country for years are probably not too eager to work with someone who has built his whole campaign how they suck. Carter’s election was a victory for liberal Americans, his ineffective presidency ended up back-firing us into the Reagan years. I fear the backlash Obama’s victory will bring once he moves into the White House.

After growing up in the Bible Belt and going to UC Santa Cruz (which was an excellent school overall) I have seen both ultra-conservative and ultra-liberal values thrown at me without critical thought. My friend at Santa Cruz who was an ABD grad student in the History of Consciousness program (his undergrad was Yale) said that Santa Cruz often filled the students with new theories without giving them the historical background behind these theories. As a result, half-baked cultural theories were being thrown around like pizza dough in Little Italy. In the same way that people in the Bible Belt threw around religion. I see young people getting behind Obama with a ferocity that is exceptional. Perhaps if they took some of that ferocity and spent it looking at some of the enlightened moves the Clintons (such as passing the horrible welfare reform act to keep the Republican hate machine at bay during the first term and then quietly using executive power to take out all the worst parts of it after Bill was reelected) and even Reagan (admittedly only one I can think of and that is when he was governor) made during their long careers that happened so long ago that even “Who’s the Boss” and “The Love Boat” were still on TV.

This gets to another thing that bothers me about Obama, people in small towns are “bitter” and “clinging to guns and religion”, yet supporters who send death threats to the woman who brings to light his comments made at a private dinner are “clinging” to Obama. Many problems of American culture are shared just as much by elightened liberals on the Coasts as the Fundis and when Obama says “angry” and “clinging” instead of “trying their best,” He unifies little and seperates greatly.

Now his wife Michelle has made the wise comment (paraphrase) that no president can bring change to America. However, this intelligent, well-educated woman who is both spiritually and materially rich saying that this election is “the first time she is proud to be an American” is a comment that is laughable and lametable in so many ways that I hope that people can see why I would feel that way without expanding on it.

Getting back to history is why I support Clinton, despite her obvious flaws. Actually, part of why I support Clinton are her obvious flaws, she fucks up and takes on her fuck-ups in an active way and yet gets up and still fights every day. It’s easy to be smooth when everyone has decided you are the winner. Which I would go into Obama’s struggles but But as women well know, it’s hard to overcome old as time gender stereotypes. Hillary has a long history of activism and doing great things. While Obama gets to live in the vibrant city of Chicago (Hillary’s hometown) in the early 70’s Hillary left the vibrant world of Yale and married a man who grew up poor (the once first Black president) and wanted to move back to Arkansas, where many of the lifestyle past times she enjoyed were far away (though Little Rock is an exceptionally charming city I must admit) and threw herself into a culture that is by all fair standards the quintessence of Redneck-dom. Hillary (who was then Hillary Rodham-Clinton) was a bespeckled woman who read novels as her husband cheered on the Razorbacks at football games.

Let’s assume she had an uphill battle socially. While in Arkansas, she worked as a child advocacy lawyer at the Rose Law firm and while she made money she also did some really great work. This was a woman who got up RIGHT AFTER the Reagan-Bush era and spoke up for National Health Care.

The point Hillary keeps trying to make as she acts like a “monster” (in the words of a prominent Obama staffer) is that Bush politics are the MOST dangerous thing and while we indulge without concern the anger of Obama supporters, perhaps we should make sure that the country is making sure the rural working poor people who feel disenfranchised and angry are being considered in this election so that the divide between urban and rural in this country can stop killing the democratic party and for acknowledging what her constiuency is and that the Democratic party needs their votes, albeit in a very stupid way, she is a racist. If we’re assuming Obama knows that rural America is capable of great things and just misspoke,

let’s give Hillary a touch of credit, I think she knows Black people work hard too.

These are my blowhard opinions, please feel free to be outraged and help me learn by giving me facts and feelings.

I’m a life long Democrat. On February 6 for the first time in my life I participated in a presidential primary caucus. My precinct caucus was combined with several others and held at a local high school. They had several precincts meeting in the cafeteria. In years past there were only 3-6 people with any one precinct so they thought that even if it was doubled they would have room. Not the case. There were several hundred of us crammed together with each precinct huddled as best they could, with folks standing on tables and chairs to try and hear each other. They finally moved some groups out to the hallway. It was an amazing experience. My precinct was split evenly between Obama and Clinton.

I voted for Obama in the primary, on this blog and look forward to voting for him in the general election. We do need change. We need intelligence. We need discourse and dialogue and not sound bites. The Clintons have made their contributions but it’s time to move beyond the Bush-Clinton-Bush years. God speed to us all.