Observation

(This is a rewrite of something I posted last night, which, upon reflection, was on the incoherent side.)

I've said that I support Obama. I do that knowing that from a practical point of view, Clinton is the better Democratic candidate. (I won't consider McCain; though I think him an honorable person, he's seriously old school, and locked into the same paradigm as Bush. Both Obama and Clinton are more appealing. ) I think that Clinton's new motto of being ready on day one is true; though no one is apparently actually ready, I think that she has a better chance in that regard than Obama. She's been exposed to it; seen it in action; knows how the shocks can come fast and furious. Heck, she even knows where the bathrooms are.

So why Obama? Primarily, it comes down to a revulsion with Bush, and wanting to get as far away from that style of behavior and set of assumptions as I can, while still staying in the ballpark of reality. To me, Obama is plausible. He has the right instincts, the right motivations. Clinton is capable, but she is a major league player. She's a politician -- and that word leaves a slimy taste in my mouth. For all that he wants to be President, I don't think of Obama as a politician. I think of him as a bright, ambitious, intelligent and compassionate person who happens to be in politics, and who wants to change the way we look and act in this muddled world.

I don't know if he can be successful. I've seen it said that he is the new equivilent of Jimmy Carter, with good -- heck, great -- motivations, but lacking the ability to translate those motivations into action. He might easily get overwhelmed by the flood of events, of people demanding 'just a moment of your time'. He might not be tough enough to handle the crises. And what he wants to do might actually be wrong -- perhaps, as ignorant as he can be, Bush is still right -- that spying on everyone is the only way to keep Al Qaeda and its clones at bay, that they are a strong and resourceful threat that will strike again. If Obama is not willing to take the same kinds of actions, perhaps he will, in fact, endanger us. What then? Its easy to glibly say 'Well, thats just the chance we'll have to take.' I'm not Jack Bauer. I cannot calmly view the s of hundreds, thousands. I know that serious threats requires serious responses. Spying, all of it, might actually be the best response. Though I think Bush an idiot in many ways, he isn't surrounded by idiots. Hell, Cheney, for all his reprehensibility, isn't an idiot.

So why Obama, given that he could be wrong, seriously wrong, and the price of finding that out could be incredibly high?

Because of the three major contenders, he's the only one to say that we've gone down the wrong path in many ways, and we need to stop, take a deep breath, and turn around. Clinton, for all her ability (and she does have it; no question about that), doesn't say that. As for McCain, I see him as cut from the same cloth as Bush -- not as bad, but certainly not hopeful, certainly not idealistic. Obama says that we need to withdraw from Iraq, take the billions we spend there, and spend it fixing our country; not to mention, paying down the massive debt. We need to stop shipping jobs overseas, which sounded good when we started, but has proven out to be good for companies, bad for the workers in those companies. We need to repair our infrastructure. We need to restore faith in the dollar, both for itself and for the diplomatic muscle that such financial strength provides. We need to rebuild our image, and work with other nations to solve our common problems.

Its a daunting list. I'm not sure that a combination of Superman, Captain Wonder, and Hercules could do a third of it -- yet it all has to be done, or at least attempted. And of the three, Obama is the one who I think is the most likely to try, across the board. "Yes, we can" may be just empty rhetoric, but it gives me something to believe in, in a way that Bush can't, McCain doesn't, even Clinton doesn't. He holds out the chance that my country will again be known as decent and honorable, strong and healthy. Foolishly generous, perhaps, and blundering, but honorable. You know -- the land of the free, and the home of the brave.

And thats why I support Obama.