A word about Obama

I'm amazed at how consistent the media coverage seems to be on Barack and Hillary. Is it just the hype machine, spinning the same story over and over, or is it the truth? I've been reading for months in magazines, newspapers and even in my friend's emails about how inspired people are by Obama. It is clear that he is a phenomenon. Young people are talking about him the way I did Bill Clinton in 1992 when I volunteered for the College Democrats to help him get elected. We were over the moon about him. Young, fresh and hip, he seemed to get it and he promised big change.

I can't say that we weren't let down by him, but I also think that it's inherent in that kind of adoration. I think we expect too much from our leaders which is not to say that we shouldn't have high standards, we absolutely should, but we also need to accept that we can't just elect a leader and expect that person to do everything right. Democracy is a participatory process. It's our responsibility to make sure the people we put in office work for us. I think people have woken up to that in the last few years. We got vocal about the war in Iraq and it didn't make a difference. Our leader ignored us and basically said we didn't know enough to make the call. We might not know all the complexities of international relations and going to war, but we know the truth from a lie, we know right from wrong, and we know that peace is better than violence.

So the discussion about whether Democrats should vote for Obama or Hillary has been distilled to a single issue: competence. He's aspirational, she's not but she has the experience. He might set our hearts aflutter but will he be able to deliver? One email from a friend talked about how we just spent eight years with a politician that didn't have enough experience, do we really want another? I hardly think the lack of experience is what's wrong with our current president and frankly, it's a ridiculous argument. Bush is surrounded by veterans of his father's administration and beyond. He has plenty of experience at his fingertips, should he want it. No, Barack Obama is no George Bush, but how valid is this question of whether he can deliver?

People say that it takes a seasoned politician to bring people together in Washington, or more accurately, to play the games they play in Washington. I'm not sure that's something I want to support. I see Hillary, as a lot of people do, not as experienced so much as ingrained. She's part of the system, she's one of them, not one of us. But isn't it ironic that her husband, just fifteen years ago was fresh? As I've said, I think our government should be participatory and as such it's critical that our leader be someone who inspires us to participate. The light I see in people when talking about Obama gives me hope. If we put a leader in power that inspires us to participate in the system, maybe we don't have to live within the confines of "the system," maybe we can truly make the government our own.