Barack, "The Bomb" Obama

[Lightning Rod]

http://english.pravda.ru/img/idb/07-obama_clinton.jpg

Barack, "The Bomb" Obama
for release 02-27-07
Washington DC


Barack "The Bomb" Obama is probably the most exciting politician since John Kennedy. Just like JFK, The Bomb has it all--charm, charisma, ethnic cachet, good looks, vulnerability and he's swashbucklingly articulate (don't start me talkin', I'm not going to say 'clean')

And you can't discount the fact that Oprah likes him. Everybody loves a virgin, especially Oprah.

And I think that is what Joe Biden meant when he called Obama "clean." I don't think it was a racist or a disparaging remark. It didn't refer to how often he bathes. Biden meant that The Bomb is a virgin to politics, he has no extensive record of votes and positions that he will have to apologize for in the future. He's Clean Eugene. He wasn't even around when Congress authorized the war in Iraq. This is a strength.

Fresh ideas are good, and fresh attitudes. The Bomb is running on his strengths. It shows his cunning if not his wisdom. We need a smart man as our president. We've seen the results of the alternative.

Obama presents the same hope and vitality and excitement that John Kennedy did. The theme of his campaign is that we need a change, we need to pass the torch to a new generation. That was also JFK's message. What these men have in common is that they challenged the American people rather than pandered to opinion polls as is the current fashion.

Hillary Clinton is a massive disappointment. When, as First Lady she attempted an initiative to improve healthcare in this country, she displayed the courage of a leader, but she has become a symbol of the old order. She has become a politician instead of a potential leader. She looks angry. (maybe the anger of a woman scorned?) She has too much money. She is owned by the same interests as all the rest. She keeps trying to play it safe. But there is no safety in leadership. Leadership means taking risks.

Here is the glaring difference between The Bomb and all the other candidates from either party who have cast their hats into the ring: All the others are running on fear and he is running on hope.
If I wasn't running against him, I would vote for him. (if I could vote)

In the 1960 election, the Teamsters endorsed John Kennedy. In the 2008 election Oprah has endorsed Obama. I think that these endorsements carry about the same weight if you adjust for time and circumstance. Oprah has a vast constituency, and she gives cars away. I smell votes. Let's call it the Oprah/Obama Phenomena.

When Will Rogers remarked that he was not a member of any organized political party, he was a Democrat, he coined the legacy for that party. If the Democrats were an organized political party they would do the obvious and pair the frontrunners to make a winning ticket rather than suffer the bloodbath that the next year of primary campaigning will bring. Clinton and Obama would make a good ticket. She would bring experience (she did clean the White House for eight years) and Obama would bring hope a promise. There is always 2016.

Of course we'll have to soften Hillary up a bit, maybe a little botox around the eyes and perhaps a cute Monica Lewinski beret. If she really wants the female vote, she needs to be more girly. She already has a black eye with her natural constituency, women, because many women perceive her as weak for tolerating her husband's peccadillo with Ms. Lewinski.

Personally, I don't see this as a weakness, but a strength. It represents forgiveness which is a foundation of Christian thought. And, after all, I'm a man like Bill and I know how hard it is to refuse a blow-job.

The Poet's Eye sees a heckuva race coming up in 2008. It will be better than Nascar and The World Mud Wrestling Federation combined. Get yourself a lazy-boy and a bowl of guacamole and kick back.
My money is on The Bomb.


There was a boy
A very strange enchanted boy
They say he wandered very far, very far
Over land and sea
A little shy and sad of eye
But very wise was he

And then one day
A magic day he passed my way
And while we spoke of many things
Fools and kings
This he said to me
"The greatest thing you'll ever learn
Is just to love and be loved in return"
--Eden Ahbez

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[Jenni Mansfield Peal]

The past president Barack most reminds me of is Abraham Lincoln. You know, back when republicans were democrats. He's a lawyer from the midwest of modest birth who's gotten an education working with the most humble people for the most basic humanitarian gains. He is a self-made man, with no family connections to money or power, and has won enthusiastic fans and supporters who have led him to suprising political victories. He seems like a civil servant, not a knight, yet he appears to be enlightened. He gives the impression of wanting to be a politician because he's needed, with a true beleif in the democratic system and desire to restore it to the hands of American voters. He seems to have a cheerful, patient outlook, with deep ideals and understandings that feed his rhetoric. Like Lincoln and Kennedy both, he's a family man with young children. His wife has another job - she's a lawyer too (no connection there, just thought it's neat to have working people in the seats of power.)

On the contrary of current rhetoric surrounding his phenomenon, Barack is quite experienced with people and their needs from the petty to the noble, and he has a sophisticated understanding of "community." He appears to understand community as the basis of democracy. The cynical insinuation of the claim that he has no "experience" seems to be based on the idea that he has not spent very much time in the congressional den, compromising his ideals for personal political and financial gain. He appears to be a man to whom personal and political gains are realized only through his ideals. He understands certain ideas as givens - like that the U.S. government should work in bahalf of the most good of the U.S. people, which includes specific people's health care, continuing education, and personal privacy and dignity needs. Also, that everybody is the same in what they should be able to expect from our government. That includes folks disenfranchised by our penal system, like you, LR.
That's like Abraham Lincoln.

[Zlatko Waterman]

Nice commentary, LRod.

It's time we had a little hope from somewhere.

I guess I'm too old and cynical and have had too many political dealings to believe that one good man can change it all.

If Barack makes it and runs for the Dems, he'll be running on massive corporate bucks-- the kind of money corporate heads give only when they expect something in return.

Still, I hope.

Clean Eugene was a poet and a college professor whose best celebrity buddy was drunken, crazy poet Robert Lowell. I think Gene didn't really have it in him to become president-- or at least to function as president. He was too much of an artist and thinker.

Poems of "Clean Gene" McCarthy, presidential candidate, 1968 ( when I was one of his campaign workers):

http://www.thecie.org/gene/index.asp?s=POEMS

Now that I've reached sixty myself, I think ( or hope) he may be right in the following poem:

( paste of poem by Eugene McCarthy)


COURAGE AFTER SIXTY


Now it is certain.
There is no magic stone.
No secret to be found.
One must go
With the mind's winnowed learning.
No more than the child's handhold
On the willows bending over the lake,
On the sumac roots at the cliff edge.
Ignorance is checked,
Betrayals scratched.
The coat has been hung on the peg,
The cigar laid on the table edge,
The cue chosen and chalked,
The balls set for the final break.
All cards drawn,
All bets called.
The dice, warm as blood in the hand,
Shaken for the last cast.
The glove has been thrown to the ground,
The last choice of weapons made.


A book for one thought.
A poem for one line.
A line for one word.


"Broken things are powerful."
Things about to break are stronger still.
The last shot from the brittle bow is truest.

( end paste)






I'll feel better when Barack Obama makes ending the war, with a clear "clean" ( pun intended) deadline in years and months, the centerpiece of his campaign.

Good column.


--Z[quote][/quote]

[stilltrucking]

I am reading The Audacity Of Hope, he sounds a lot like FDR to me.


Nice read clay, thank you

[mtmynd]

Two years is a long time in politics, but given the choices that have thrown in their hats to run for '08, Obama seems to be paving a path to the White House with encouraging fans hungry for a true change.

Hillary? America has been led by the Bush/Clinton names for 20 years now and we don't need another 4 or even 8 more of either one. Nor is it healthy for our democracy to be run by professional politicians with law degrees or B.A. degrees. (a Political Scientist might be interesting)

Another clear Eye, amigo...