Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Obama is the Democratic Nominee

So finally Obama is the Democratic nominee. Clinton hasn’t yet acknowledged defeat, but she’ll have to unless she wants to appear reprimanded by the delegates of her own party. Here are a few relevant questions regarding the future.

1) Will Clinton vow full support for Obama’s candidacy?
She will or else she’ll probably get isolated within her own party. Praises for Clinton come cheap lately in the presidential race (see last night’s speeches by Obama and McCain), but no matter how sincere these compliments, she seems to be a skillful politician, and skillful politicians play the game with their heads and not with their guts. My hunch is that she is smart enough to choose supporting Obama as her best way out of this weary Primary.

2) Will Obama win the general election?
Who knows? He does seem to run with the lead, but Democrats have made it a party tradition loosing elections under favorable circumstances. Plus, Republicans are very crafty and unprincipled for playing the game. Let’s hope Obama will manage to dodge all the hurdles that will surely arise on his way. At least, he does seem to be smarter than many previous Democratic candidates.

3) If elected president, will Obama bring about the much promised change?
Probably not. He is an exciting politician and has a sort of aura, so it’s easy to develop a political crush on him (as some bloggers have). But to be realistic, you don’t need a whole lot of political experience to realize that almost always political change comes piecemeal. I too am sick of empty political forecasts, but one more on the pile can’t harm: many will be disappointed. The higher you fly, the harder you hit the floor when you fall. And there’s only so much a president can do. Not because a Progressive Democrat gets elected, the country is any more Progressive than it was before. There is also a Parliament, and the Supreme Court, and State governments and legislatures, etc. But, as I have said in other posts, I do think that Obama’s presidency would have a tremendous historical impact in the long run. I believe this could potentially ensue a redistribution of political power across the racial spectrum. No doubt that would be huge.

2 Comments:

CM said...

There's a good article in last week's New Yorker on the insidious Republican propaganda machine that illustrates a nice lineage from Rove back to Nixon.

There's two things that I worry about for Obama. 1. He will be assassinated; 2. the current lovefest will turn sour as soon as he fails to deliver; fly high, crash hard.

He's on this wave of giddy optimism, people think he's going to shake everything up, but he can't as you said, because change comes piecemeal. Actually change could come a WHOLE lot faster, but that would require citizens actually doing something other than voting and sending money to NPOs to assuage their liberal guilt. In this sense the pedestalling of Obama is typical of Americans, who are always looking for the easy solution, the silver bullet to transformation and everlasting happiness. It is not unlike saying that Obama is the Jesus Christ for liberals who want to be born again.

That said, I think Obama rocks and I'm very excited at the prospect of an intelligent, progressive mind in the White House.

Matias Bulnes said...

Actually, fast change would probably require citizens being what they are not, i.e. Progressive, politically involved, etc. But point taken.

I'm excited about Obama too, but don't want to loose track of reality. Election times are always hopeful and one is predisposed to overstate one's expectations. Is like when you first meet your future girlfriend. You can't see wrong in her. But wait a couple of years: you won't be able to see right in her. I'm just calling for moderation in times when it's hard not to get carried away.

I'll take a look at the New Yorker's article.

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