Klein closes with this assessment:
His has been a remarkable campaign, as smoothly run as any I've seen in nine presidential cycles. Even more remarkable, Obama has made race — that perennial, gaping American wound — an afterthought. He has done this by introducing a quality to American politics that we haven't seen in quite some time: maturity. He is undoubtedly as ego-driven as everyone else seeking the highest office — perhaps more so, given his race, his name and his lack of experience. But he has not been childishly egomaniacal, in contrast to our recent baby-boomer Presidents — or petulant, in contrast to his opponent. He does not seem needy. He seems a grown-up, in a nation that badly needs some adult supervision.
7 comments:
Makes me wish I were 15 and could feel safe when I listen to him. Because at 45, when I listen to him I feel anything but safe. As the uncle of a gung-ho Marine who is finishing his training in CQB (Close Quarters Battle), my fear is that my nephew will be much less safe w/Obama in charge rather than McCain. I think Joe Biden was right (for once) when he said if Obama is elected trouble will come running.
If you will recall, there were hostages kept in Iran for over 400 days. Do you remember how quickly they were freed around the time of Reagan's inauguration?
As a 44-year-old with a airman nephew who guards, drives, and repairs Humvees in Qatar, waiting to be deployed to Iraq, and in whom I am as proud as my own children, I pray to God that we elect the man in this race who has shown a calm leadership and commitment to strategy, not a mindless commitment to violence.
Interestingly, my nephew and many of the men he talks politics with in his unit are voting for Obama.
Oh, and the reason you don't feel safe when you listen to him is because you don't listen to him. Hearing isn't listening.
Before you are tempted to accuse me of the same, you need to know that I supported McCain in 2000. Would have voted for him had he not been done in by vicious robocalls. I've watched him change from the grownup man he used to be.
I think I've been in your daughter's position for the last three years. And the Times writer has it right. In Obama, I see someone down to earth enough to make me feel valued, and intelligent and rational enough to think "yep, he's WAY smarter than me" (something I value in a presidential candidate!).
i do enjoy his calm demeanor -- they say you take on the emotions of those who lead you. I'd much rather take on his calm, thoughtfulness instead of the reactionary attack mode I've seen the last 8 years.
"Oh, and the reason you don't feel safe when you listen to him is because you don't listen to him. Hearing isn't listening."
I'm sorry; I must have missed something. When did you develop this wonderful psychic power to read my mind? I think Obama scares me for much the same reasons he scares his running mate. I will admit, however, he says lots of pretty words and I can understand why a 15-year-old kid would be enamored of him.
Obama was opposed to the surge. To my knowledge, he remains opposed to the surge in the face of indisputable evidence that it was extremely successful. THAT was a strategy to which he should have been committed.
Ah yes, in answer to my earlier question, the Iran hostage crisis ended on Jan. 20, 1981. Minutes after Ronald Reagan was sworn into office. If you want your 15-year-old to better understand how the world works, you might explain to her why it would be that terrorists would feel perfectly safe holding Americans as prisoners for 444 days when Jimmy Carter was president but could hardly free them fast enough when Reagan was coming into office.
By the way, Charles Krauthammer is makes a compelling argument for John McCain:
"The case for McCain is straightforward. The financial crisis has made us forget, or just blindly deny, how dangerous the world out there is. We have a generations-long struggle with Islamic jihadism. An apocalyptic soon-to-be-nuclear Iran. A nuclear-armed Pakistan in danger of fragmentation. A rising Russia pushing the limits of revanchism. Plus the sure-to-come Falklands-like surprise popping out of nowhere.
Who do you want answering that phone at 3 a.m.? A man who’s been cramming on these issues for the past year, who’s never had to make an executive decision affecting so much as a city, let alone the world? A foreign policy novice instinctively inclined to the flabbiest, most vaporous multilateralism (e.g., the Berlin Wall came down because of “a world that stands as one”), and who refers to the most deliberate act of war since Pearl Harbor as “the tragedy of 9/11,” a term more appropriate for a bus accident?
Or do you want a man who is the most prepared, most knowledgeable, most serious foreign policy thinker in the United States Senate? A man who not only has the best instincts but has the honor and the courage to, yes, put country first, as when he carried the lonely fight for the surge that turned Iraq from catastrophic defeat into achievable strategic victory?
Nor will I countenance the “dirty campaign” pretense. The double standard here is stunning. Obama ran a scurrilous Spanish-language ad falsely associating McCain with anti-Hispanic slurs. Another ad falsely claimed that McCain supports “cutting Social Security benefits in half.” And for months Democrats insisted that McCain sought 100 years of war in Iraq.
McCain’s critics are offended that he raised the issue of William Ayers. What’s astonishing is that Obama was himself not offended by William Ayers."
i think that one of the fundamental differences in who a person is voting for in this election comes down to what you want the world's perception of the united states to be, or in my case, become. i have travled extensively throughout europe, both on the heals of the clinton administration and during the start of the surge into iraq. the difference in the european public opinion of the U.S. in just 3 years was startling. (out of curiosity, it is news to me that the surge has been a success. i would really like to see some info on that please)
during my first trip of 4 months, most people that i met still held the belief that america was a decent place of opportunity and promise. oh, what a difference a few years can make.
in 2003, i actually had to conceal my nationality on several occasions out of fear for my safety. people think that our country and its people are impatient, greedy, self-satisfying and full of hate. this something that i am embarrassed about i hope can begin to be rectified with the coming change in administration.
i also think it funny that people criticize obama's tendency to not make quick, on the spot decisions. what is so wrong with making a calculated and patient decision, instead of jumping to conclusions and making things worse? maybe it is just me, but i prefer a methodical thinker to a hasty warrior with his finger on a button. i also was unaware that 9/11 was no longer considered a tragedy.
quick question to someone smarter than myself: what do you think a "victory in iraq" would look like? is it when we leave? is it it when there is no more domestic violence there? is it when the first wal-mart opens? i really have lost sight of what this war was about, what it has evolved into and why we are still there. this is not a loaded question by any means. i seriously do not know. i remember what it was about 5 years ago, but not today. maybe i will hear more about it after the election.
on a lighter note, it was good to see will ferrell back on SNL. that man makes me hurt in places i did not know i could hurt. in some ways, it is sad to know we might not see his "bush" anymore. in other ways, not so much...
Mainstream media outlets (which are almost by definition liberal), including Time magazine, have acknowledged the surge has been successful. If I remember correctly, eight of eleven provinces have been turned over to Iraqi security, including Anbar, which was (again, if I recall correctly) the hotbed of the Sunni insurgency. Overall violence is down significantly since before the surge, etc. I think it was in the Sept. 1 edition of Time that I read about Anbar. If that's helpful.
By the way, we were in Europe in 1998, at the height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Other than the jokes, no ill will toward Americans. We were also advised to try to look "European" and not like Americans because Americans were targeted even then.
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