IN THE BEGINNING WAS HOPE, AND IT WAS GOOD

John B. Judis writes one of the best articles I've seen on American politics and the Obama candidacy.

Among other things, he says,

"The American instinct to continuously remake ourselves in the image of Adam--to achieve a decisive and final break with history--has periodically proven seductive to voters. And, sometimes, this instinct can produce important, transformative results. Yet the past--in the form of race or war or deeply held partisan animosities--has a way of lingering around. At the very least, it rarely recedes without a bitter fight. None of which is to say that Barack Obama will fail. He has already defied the expectations of wizened political journalists like me who believed he had no chance to win the nomination. If he becomes president, he will have a chance to prove me wrong again: to show that the party of youth and hope and change can govern effectively. No one will be more delighted than I will if he succeeds."

OH, YEAH

WAIT FOR IT

I'm saying this here and now. Expect another decisive Obama victory tomorrow. THEN...just wait for the bomb to drop. I don't know what it will be, but just wait for it. Somewhere between tomorrow and March 4th, the Clinton Machine will pull the pin on whatever WMD they've been working on. It will be brutal and potentially devastating...for all of us. These people know how to win elections. They don't know when to quit or how to win without significant collateral damage, but do not underestimate them. They refuse to lose. It might not be one blow, it might be a series of dirty tricks, intimidations, or full on attacks, but it will come. Just. Wait. For. It.

And we will all be the worse for it.

I hope to God I'm wrong this time.

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

Primary and caucus wins in Washington, Nebraska, Louisiana, the Virgin Islands, and Maine.

And now, a GRAMMY!

Not a bad weekend, that.

What's next, a Nobel? Loaves and fishes?

THE REAL PROBLEM WITH AMERICAN POLITICS

I was following the returns of the Maine caucuses. It was terribly hard to find a source that was even tracking the results. It was as if the Maine contest had no meaning. (Yes, it could be that it only had meaning to the weirdly obsessed political freaks like myself, but...)

So, I finally locate an official recording of the numbers. Obama is significantly ahead early on, yet I still see no one talking about it on any news sites. This is important. The number of delegates makes it all but meaningless to the overall count, but the cumulative effect of five in a row (WA, NE, LA, Virgin Islands, ME) for Obama in two days builds some momentum and growing feel of grass roots consensus.

After 70% of the precincts have reported and Obama leads 58% to Hillary's 41%, I go to www.cnn.com, expecting it to be their headline. No. Wrong.

The BREAKING NEWS banner: "CELEBRRITIES ARRIVE FOR THE 50TH ANNUAL GRAMMY AWARDS."

There you have it. "Who are you wearing?" has replaced "Who are we electing?"

Does anyone know who won the last American Gladiator? Pass the pork rinds. Belch.

READY TO GO

Then there's this one.

Obama definitely wins the cool musician contest.

SI SE PUEDE

This video directed by Jesse Dylan, Bob's son.



The first president I voted for was Reagan in 1984. By the end of that decade and into the next, I became disillusioned with the militant triumphalism that marginalized the weak for the sake of the powerful. I went from skeptic to supporter during the Clinton years, but I couldn't shake my concerns about dishonesty and the politics of division. The last seven years of malice, incompetence and Rove-ian tactics have driven me to despair. I have voted against Bush, but never really felt like I had something to vote for. Until now.

I am drawn to Barack Obama's words of hope and what author Toni Morrison calls his "searing vision." Some say we need more than words. Of course we do, but words matter. When words draw millions of people of every background together in a common belief, they matter. When words highlight "us" and "we" rather than "I" and "me," they matter. Obama's words move us beyond a candidacy and into a movement.

The cynics who prey on our fears ask us to dance with the devils we know. They tell us we can't change things through faith and hope. Our answer: "Yes we can."

DO SOMETHING TO HELP.

VOTE.