Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due
I must admit from the start to not being a big fan of Senator Obama. For reasons I will discuss in future posts I am quite concerned about his qualifications to be President. I also question whether his motives and personality are truly as noble and pure as some of his supporters allege.
Indeed, just as I wonder about the so called Bush Derangement Syndrome, I also wonder about the Obama Evangalism Syndrome.
However tonight is not the night for me to comment on those issues, there will be plenty of time between now and November for me to offer observations on the Obama campaign. Tonight is the night for me to keep a little intellectual honesty by giving credit where credit is due.
Senator Obama has pulled off one of the most brilliant political coups in modern campaigns. If you go back just 5 years to the summer of 2003, Obama was a relatively obscure state senator from Illinois. Not only did nobody in Iowa or New Hampshire know who he was, I rather suspect that there were a lot of people in Chicago who were not so sure.
Today he is on the verge of being the Democratic candidate for President of The United States and given the current political climate, in about 7 months he is likely to be living in the White House. He has not only won the nomination but has done so over a candidate that virtually everyone considered a certain winner.
To be sure he has been helped in this endeavor by the political climate. Like Jimmy Carter 30 years ago he has been able to enter a jaded political enviroment and connect with voters tired of politics as usual. He has also been aided by a horrible campaign on the part of his opponent. If the Obama effort gets awards for being one of the best, Clinton has earned one for one of the worst.
Indeed many people did discuss the possibility of Clinton fatigue, but the idea that a first time candidate could not only move past Clinton but also all of the other contenders was a bit out of this world.
But even if you take into account the conditions that helped Obama you cannot deny the accomplishment of having the nerve to make the race in the first place and the brilliance of success. One sign of this can be seen in the fact that Obama is tonight speaking from the site of the GOP convention. Clearly this venue had to be booked well in advance, showing either that he and his staff were overly confident or quite prescient.
So my hat is off to you Senator Obama, you have won a race that few people thought possible.
9 Responses to “Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due”
When Obama gave the keynote speech at the 04 convention the buzz was about Obama as the next Saviour of the party. Up and coming………..this, that and the other.
In the end it is nothing more then a self fulfilling prophecy. The man who used to figure out who gets the next beer license now gets to tell the world what to do.
Only in America.
Senator Claire McCaskill was interviewed the other day on a local NPR station talk show. When the subject of Obama's experience came up she pointed out something about his ability. What do you think it takes to run a successful campaign for the presidency, especially when facing the kinds of odds that Obama faced? Look at the size of that kind of enterprise. The time, effort and skill invested is huge. And he did it. He did a better job of actually running a campaign and choosing the right staff for it as well as having the right kind of message and charisma it took. Don't lose sight of those facts when judging his qualifications.
Thanks for the comments folks.
As I said, tonight is not a night for me to debate Obama or the issues I have with his candidacy. There is plenty of time for that, tonight I am simply tipping my hat.
[...] wins the office but, as I and not a few others suspect is likely, has a horrible term in office … [...]
Looks like Neocon has ODS. Much is said about BDS, but what about Bush Evangalism Syndrome? All those Neocon's swallowed every thing Bush said as gospel for years and now deny it.
I am one Obama supporter who is far from 'evangelizing' him. I don't think he's perfect, and already he's said things with which I disagree. I realize that my vote will be a gamble. On the other hand, no person, no candidate is perfect and every vote is a gamble, because we can never really know how things will turn out.
GWB promissed to be a uniter, but he failed utterly to pursue his promise.
i support Obama mostly because of his ideas about trying to bring a new style to politics and a new style to how we get along with one another.
More than his rhetoric, what convinced me was the story of one member of his staff. This man (Ive forgotten his name) because of religious conviction believes that homosexuality is a sin, while Obama does not. Despite criticism, Obama refused to cast this man out, as he caused no harm to those he worked with.
That story really took me aback, and caused me to remember anew the principle of ''hate the sin, not the sinner'. .
We, unfortunately, don't do that, and the result is political wars that extend far beyond crtiticism of someone's ideas. We demonize, dehumanize and try to destroy anyone who disagrees. One bad idea, and we hate every idea that person has; we hate the whole person along with anyone associated with him.
The story about how Obama dealt with a difference in beliefs shows a much better way to deal with differences, as we try to co-exist in the same country.
It was Obama's putting into practice what he preaches that inspired me.
A saint? Far from it.
The best hope? Definitely.
The reasons I favor Sen. Obama have nothing to do with blind optimism or charisma, or any of that nonsense. I simply find him to be the candidate with the fewest amount of liabilities and the most potential when compared with the rest. If that somehow translates into positive change, or even genuine leadership (which we've been without for far too long) then it will be a pleasant surprise.
“Evangalism” should be “Evangelism,” from the Greek, evangel, meaning “Good News.”
Looks like Rambie is obsessed with attacking Neocon. Perhaps you should click on my little icon Rambie and read some of my other post instead of just haphazardly assigning a label to me because of a name.
I am not a neocon. I suspect you are not Rambo.
However having said that most people here know that I am a Hillary Clinton supporter and a democrat. Sorry to rain on your parade my friend.