Obamanation

I like the politician you see pictured here. I don't care that his skin is darker than mine, and I don't care that he's a Yankee, either. Two months ago, I was absolutely certain that I would cast my vote for him if John Edwards dropped out of the race, but a lot has changed in these past two months, and yesterday I voted for Hillary. My action was not the result of anything said or done by Mr. Obama, his wife, Michelle, or any of his competent handlers. Don't ask me about CNN, though that's a topic in itself. It's not the candidate that makes me leery and nervous. It's the public mania led by CNN as the self-appointed head cheerleader. It's the rabid behavior of his fan base, and yes, that's exactly what it is, a fan base, not a constituency of citizenry.

I think there are three inherent weaknesses present in this latest version of American madness. First of all, I think many of his young, inexperienced fans greatly underestimate the nastiness of the hard-core, right wing attack that will surely ensue once he is officially named as the Democratic candidate. Secondly, if and when he has taken the Presidency, his head will be so big from the massive adoration that I don't see how he will be able to get it through the White House doors. This will lead to the second issue of which I am very nervous. A person who has attained this lofty level of popularity and fame just for being himself and delivering moving speeches will never risk losing any of that adoration in a fight with the Republicans. The third issue is that, even if he does manage to surpass the first two blockades to progress, he still must have a clear Democratic majority in Congress to actually see any progressive legislation passed.

I would dearly love to be wrong about all these suppositions, but what if I am not? The country desperately needs a political street fighter in The White House. We don't need inspirational speeches in which the mantra of change is endlessly repeated. We need an attack dog to grab those corporate billionaires by the scruffs of their necks and shake loose a truly progressive tax code. We need to create genuine, affluent, quality jobs for Americans. We need to rebuild our infrastructure. We need single-payer health insurance. We need to repeal NAFTA. We need to penalize corporations for unnecessary downsizing and outsourcing. We need radical plans for easing the bursting of the housing bubble. We need to wean ourselves off foreign oil. We need our leadership to take global warming seriously and plan the protection of future generations. We need to protect Roe v. Wade at all cost. We need to make birth control of all types more, not less, available to the poor of this and other countries. We need a plan to improve the plight of our public school system. We need to take the person status back from the corporations. We need to re-regulate Wall Street. We need the corporate attack methods of John Edwards, the consumer protectionism of Ralph Nader and Michael Moore, and the progressive agenda of Dennis Kucinich. We as a nation need entirely too much change right now to settle for the word repeated in an exquisitely rehearsed speech!