Obama: Is It Better To Have Loved?

As Denver draws closer, bringing with it the Democratic nomination, I can say that I am finally committed to Barack Obama. Not committed to him as a candidate so much as I feel we are in an actual relationship. I know much has been made of people with Kennedy-like crushes on him. But--though I do love her short-shorts--I am no Obama girl. No, my love affair with the presidential hopeful has moved past the initial euphoria and infatuation of a crush. I have given Obama the keys to my apartment and we are going to see what it's like to live together. I see his flaws more clearly now, but I choose to ignore them as I often do in "real" relationships. We are going to make this work dammit.

This love affair with politicians was probably instilled in me by my mother, who I vividly remember dancing around our living room to Fleetwood Mac singing "Don't stop thinking about tomorrow," while Bill Clinton beamed at the world through our crappy TV. Those heady inaugural days are long gone. I know my mom feels like she was jilted at the political alter by Bill and is embarrassed for standing by her man during the Lewinski scandal only to find she'd been played, as if it were my mother, and not Hillary, who'd been cheated on. Now she "wouldn't cross the street to see the man." Which is a fact, as he spoke at an auditorium mere blocks from her house, and she remained indoors, her and my grandmother gossiping bitterly about Bill "home-wrecker" Clinton on the phone.

Like my mom, I will hang on until there is no going back. I will believe in change so furiously that if Obama isn't who I think he is--who he has the potential to be-- it will be devastating. I imagine myself, years from now, going through a drawer and stumbling upon a campaign button like an old love letter. I will quickly bury it again because won't be able to bring myself to throw it out. It will remind me that I once believed in hope.

Comments

[MPeter]

Very nicely done. Great article. Obama will no doubt have his own imperfections because he is human. But if he handles the affairs of state half as well as he has ran this campaign, you and many of us will have little to regret about.

[fairwitness]

C'mon, Jessica, you can rest assured Obama is most definitely NOT what you hope. He may turn out to be great, he may be the perfect answer to these dark times, he may even be the cat's meow, but he is first a polititian, and to give him such a free pass to your heart is stupid (sorry to say). He IS an early-days Bill Clinton, be not deceived. The potential is there for a better outcome, but the deal must still be done before worship will be in order.

He has already jilted us on FISA and a few other rather importanty issues; no doubt more of the same is coming, as he has demonstrated that he is not a singleminded defender of Justice and Good, despite his rhetoric during the primaries.

There is surely Hope--let's MAKE him be the solution we need, not by adoration but by hard-headed realism and by pushing hard on every lever available to evoke his insipient heroism.