Well
Well, I'm very glad, of course. Especially for all my friends who campaigned for Obama, who tremulously, then less tremulously, hoped. But, well, for myself, I note this morning a depressing sourness and inability to be moved. The Blair years have made me despise and fear the genus Politician, pretty much regardless of species. I wait, and long, to be convinced. Slow-burning hope is the strongest kind.
12 comments:
I get that. There were ways in which Bill Clinton's presidency was more discouraging to me than George W. Bush's.
But at present -- without having any particular belief in Obama as the messiah -- it's just such a damn relief. It feels as if there's enough oxygen in the air again.
McCain's speech actually meant more to me than Obama's, that way. Last night I felt like an exile finally allowed to come home to his country.
Agreed. My joy is mostly that the obvious idiots and reactionaries didn't take it this time.
I'm a realist: I realize Obama is still a politician, and there's only so much a President can do with his office. What gives me hope isn't this one individual man or what he'll do; what gives me hope is the fact that the American people came out in record numbers to make their voice heard, and they spoke for hope, change, and optimism over the narrow-minded, fear-mongering rhetoric of the other campaign.
Regardless of what Obama does or doesn't do, it feels wonderful this morning to know that ordinary Americans can & did muster behind a black man with an international pedigree and a funny name. If we can elect a man whose middle name is "Hussein," we can do anything.
And I agree with what Dale said about McCain. I've always admired Sen. McCain, so I've been hugely disappointed with some of his decisions during this campaign as well as the "nasty" tone it's taken at time. Last night, it felt like the man of honor & dignity we saw in the 2000 primaries came home again. I hope Democrats and Republicans alike can move behind the strident partisanship of the campaign to work on the real challenges our country faces.
And your heartfelt words, dear friends who were there, are there, do more to give me hope, of course, than anything I hear on the news.
All well said. I enjoy sharing your comments to Jean. From the frame of reference here, knowing that time will tell, it is the beginning of a new era.
Linda in Nashville
This morning's headline "Change has come" is both underestimation and overestimation.
My thoughts are very similar, Jean. I truly believed that Blair would provide a viable alternative to the Thatcherism that I grew up with, but in fact he just seemed to give it a huge dose of steroids. I'm not sure I'll ever trust a politician again.
I do, cautiously, like Brown though. That dourness is precisely what British/Western politics needs. I'm fed up with people who think they can fix the world. I just want them to fix the trains and the education system.
I was thinking about the 1997 euphoria, and how quickly disappointment set in. One of the things that struck me though, was what Beth said about his gravity, that sober acknowledgement of the sheer enormity of the task and the dread state of things. That was absent, I think, that night in 1997, when they allowed themselves to be seduced and intoxicated by their success.
But it is a relief, and whatever he doesn't do, how can he amke it any worse?
I think the problem with 1997, in retrospect, was that too many people - myself included - went along with the (New) Labour ethos that whatever philosophical/ideological changes were necessary to achieve power were justified. The problem with that is that it becomes all about the power and the ideology becomes secondary. When you abandon so many of the things that defined you in the first place, your sense of identity must become pretty fragile.
hg, yup. It's what the Italian euro-communists called the Compromesso Storico. They made a mistake of historic proportions, and so did we.
I think Obama's attitude is so different than Blair's on election, humble and aknowledging the work required rather than jubilant. This is a very good sign and i think he is less likely to betray the voters, though there's no guarentee that things will go right for him
Overall though I am always cautious about politics...
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