Barack Obama For President
From the very beginning -- back when our torture chambers still had that new torture chamber smell; and before our chief executive's incompetence exploded like an M80 inside the clenched-fist of the world -- George W. Bush has been an embarrassment.
We know his disgraceful deeds and policies. But it's his utter lack of quality; his unsubstantial presence; his marble-mouthed oratorical retardation; his inability to inspire greatness; and his empty-suit absence of intellectual curiosity which preordained him to be the worst President of the United States in modern history.
Admittedly, when it comes to the presidency, my personal level of idealism rests somewhere between Frank Capra and Aaron Sorkin. I'm a presidential geek. One of my life goals is to work in the White House for one week. My Dad's old office at the Treasury Department used to look out over the east lawn, and when I was a kid I used to imagine that one day the president would invite me and my Dad for a ride on Marine One.
But after seven years in this Dark Age, I've almost forgotten what it was like to have a real president occupying the White House: a president who, even if I disagreed with his policies and ideology, dignified the office with a stature that symbolized the awesomeness of America.
Emerson wrote, "Every hero becomes a bore at last. Perhaps Voltaire was not bad-hearted, yet he said of the good Jesus, even, 'I pray you, let me never hear that man's name again.'"
We seem to experience this routine with almost every two-term president. But President Bush was never a hero in the first place and only grew more ridiculous with each subsequent crime against the Constitution, against human decency and against democracy itself. If there's any justice left in this nation, history will record that President Bush was an entirely inadequate tool; a bungling villain whose early popularity grew out of a traumatic and patriotic need to support the office regardless of who occupied it.
And when the flood waters literally rose up and washed away the disguise, the slack-jawed poseur was revealed -- the "bore" who had always been there, but who had been previously and cynically costumed in cowboy drag. Some of us recognized the charade from the beginning, but it required a second national tragedy, this time in New Orleans, to alert the media and the rest of America to his criminal incompetence.
American history is inextricably tied to the presidency. It's how we mentally assemble the chronology of our past. For going on eight years, we've endured a chief executive who never should have ascended to this post. Consequently, this decade has been an aberration; a time when Americans somehow championed an illegitimate, Orwellian hooplehead and, naturally, we suffered for our lack of vision. This is how most of the first decade of this century will be remembered.
Yet our generation is being offered another chance here -- an opportunity to set things straight and elect a president who not only illustrates the historical qualities of the office, but who also defines an energetic new approach.
The next president has to be Senator Barack Obama.
Senator Obama's intelligence, passion and quality of character can inspire us to recapture our own potential for greatness. And after all these years of darkness, there is no alternative other than to correct our trajectory with someone who can elevate our common goals -- the American Dream. For the American Dream to survive, this era demands a new president who will include all of us in the debate over our future, whether or not we agree on every issue.
And I'm proud to say that I don't agree with the senator on everything. But it doesn't matter because this campaign is about much more than individuals and their pet issues. This is about the reacquisition of an ideal -- of a benevolent greatness which has been stolen away from us.
I see in Senator Obama an historic character who fits within my persnickety and idealistic template for the presidency -- and this time around, it happens that my idealistic choice has a realistic chance to win. So this isn't necessarily an endorsement based on ideology, but an endorsement based on that which is required from an historical perspective.
The alternatives on either side of this campaign are ultimately redundant to what we have now.
On the Republican side, each frontrunner represents a rage-inducing aspect of the present Bush regime. The Romney Unit represents the Paris Hilton fiscal policy of the Bush administration; Giuliani is the unstable, crazy-ass hubristic gunslinger; and Mike Huckabee is the cross-bearing fundamentalist who floats in the same fantasy world as Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort.
On the Democratic side, John Edwards is a tough call because he has the right idea. But there was a thing with Edwards from 2004 that I can't seem to shake. And I've really, really tried. During one of the primary debates, Howard Dean stood up to answer a question. As was the campaign fashion at the time, Dean rolled up his sleeves. Then, behind him, I spotted John Edwards whose eyes suddenly widened at Dean's sleeve-rolling as if to say, Oh crap, I should roll up my sleeves now or else I won't be awesome like Howard. Then he quickly rolled up his sleeves. It was an awkwardly candid moment which revealed a lack of originality and, for my admittedly nitpicky tastes, a little too much of the staged illusion of it all. But most importantly, I imagined him exhibiting the same derivative behavior when voting with the president on Iraq.
Senator Clinton, meanwhile, is certainly more intelligent and centrist than President Bush, but there's a secretive, calculating DLC side to the senator which drifts too dangerously close to the universe of Dick Cheney than the fresh approach her husband, President Clinton, offered in 1992.
Speaking of which, President Clinton said this week that Senator Clinton would dispatch the first President Bush on a world tour in order to repair America's reputation abroad. First, 'the hell you say?! Second, wouldn't that be just like a Cheney -- to use a Bush as a political tool. Seriously, we can't have this. Not even as a speculative talking point. Not any more.
This is what we're desperately trying to escape, goddamn it. This is why it's imperative that Senator Obama win the nomination and ultimately the White House itself.
Naturally, the day might arrive when President Obama becomes Emerson's bore. One day, years from now, we'll likely be lamenting the traditional media's "Obama Fatigue" narrative. But, by that time, I think we'll be prepared for the next era in American history. Hopefully, after two terms and eight years, President Obama will hand over his legacy to his vice president. But for now he's the historical antidote to the darkness and division we've endured for too many years. He's our best hope to restore the national equilibrium and to fulfill both the expectation of greatness the presidency deserves and, thusly, the greatness of America.
And no. However awesome it'd be, I'm not saying these things in exchange for a flight aboard Marine One. I mean, I wouldn't turn it down, of course... but that's not why.
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Bob Cesca,
I basically agree with most of your well thought-thru commentary. My presonal choice for the presidency is Edwards, who I believe to be more on target in regard to the aspirations of the American majority. Obama is still lightyears ahead of those neocon aberations illegally contaminating OUR White House for the past seven years.
Irregardless of who is sworn in as our next president we cannot pardon those criminals who have made a travesty of all that we hold sacred in OUR country. Criminal indictments MUST be pursued, if not by our court system because of the power of presidential pardons, then through the international justice system.
So interesting that there have been what seems like a wave of these type of articles - Andrew Sullivan's piece in The Atlantic "Why Obama Matters" and others all make the case for what Obama represents - change, idealism, greatness - and I couldn't agree more. Thanks Bob!
In the beginning god said let there be light and he made obama in response to the darkness and division that Bob Cesca has experienced all these years. Maybe if Obama happens to be the next pres he will give Bob a ride on his camel.
Hey Bob, good news! If you don't like Clinton or Edwards, it's no longer necessary for you to settle for Obama. There are actually several other Democratic candidates to choose from! Yes, I know, according to all the news outlets and political pundits (including HuffPo) this is, always has been, and always will be a 3-way race. Dennis who? Christopher who? Mike who? Level playing field? Jesus wept...
This administration is giving me ulcers.
Gemma
I must say something about Bill Clinton's statement referenced in this piece referring to Clinton claiming that he and Bush 41 could be sent out to "repair" Bush 43's damage throughout the world once Hillary is elected President. Anyone who knows anything about the Bush family would know better than to make an ignorant statement like that because if nothing else, the Bush family is loyal to their own including their idiot sons.
What however does worry me is the weird relationship that Bill has with the Bush family. It's much more than just goodwill visits to countries in need of aid. If anything this relationship should be a red flag to all voters who can't stomach the damage the Bush family has done to our country and would prefer they be shut out of access to government altogether.
RJ Crane
topplebush
I agree. I'm afraid Hillary is not a break with the past, not a fresh start. I'm also afraid the wingnuts will turn out in droves to vote against her. An Obama presidency would shock the world back into seeing America as a beacon of hope, justice and opprtunity for all.
And oh yeah... Bush sucks.
Any Democrat would be a welcome relief after Bush. In my opinion, Edwards is a better choice than Obama at this time. I would love to see Obama as President, after 8 years of Edwards. By then he will have been around long enough to have the age, experience and maturity to be a great President. If he gets the Democratic nomination now, he will go down to defeat next November and we will suffer again will another Bush - but one who speaks a little better.
Bob--
Where is Mr. Obama on the current controversy over HUD's decision to destroy public housing in N.O.? (see Nicholas Ouroussoff's article in yesterday's NYT--which puts the lie to the HUD's contention that these buildings are not worth saving)
Seems to me this is an opportunity for the Senator to take a position on the continuing attempt by both the Administration and the Congress to build a new segregated city, or even better from their point of view, an all-white middle and upper-class city on the bones of what was once the most integrated city in the U.S.--
Maybe it's time for Barack to put his money where his mouth is!!
If you have David Axelrod's ear, perhaps you'll consider passing this on---
Good heavens. Obama is a corporatist to the marrow. Wit him we will have the same old capitalist exploitation of workers, women, and the environment while they flush the national economy down the toilet. Obama may be personable and fresh, but he is neither a true democrat nor an adequate advocate for workers and women. No one can be while also advocating for the kind of unfettered capitalism run amok that the United States has suffered for all these decades.
Obama mentioning ARNOLD as a possible cabinet appointment will reopen a SORE spot Obama already had with LGBT folks. Arnold has TWICE vetoed gay marriage passed by CA legislature.
Great post. And not a word about "the first black..." I myself have gotten past the warm, fuzzy feeling I'll have, as a white man, to vote for one of the historically disenfranc
But we shouldn't count our chickens, much less speculate on what it would be like to be "bored" by President Obama. Democrats tend to presume, and as a 65-year-old variety of the species, I've been bitterly disappointed too many times before.
The problem is that the kinds of judgments that lead us to recognize Obama's qualities of character and leadership are intuitive and subjective, not given to easy summaries or qualifications jotted down in black and white. Can the American public read character accurately? They thought Bush would be a good drinking buddy, I'm told.
David Brooks, of all people, had a great column in the Dec. 18 NY Times on Obama. Wisdom comes from unexpected sources these days.
"We know his disgraceful deeds and policies. But it's his utter lack of quality; his unsubstantial presence; his marble-mouthed oratorical retardation; his inability to inspire greatness; and his empty-suit absence of intellectual curiosity which preordained him to be the worst President of the United States in modern history."
IN OTHER WORDS, GEORGE W. BUSH IS A CONSUMMATE PHONY...
Fake Texan, fake rancher, fake pilot, fake evangelical, fake compassionate conservative, fake human being....
While Bush is beyond any doubt or measure the worst president in the history of this country - he's absolute, bottom-of-
Yes-- let's vote for Obama! Spread the word for he is the best candidate for our country today!
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