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After Obama's very powerful and moving and courageous speech on race, my estimation for the man went up considerably.
I have to confess that up until recently my main impressions of Obama was that he was sort of 60% pose at this stage of his career and wasn't terribly practiced in the fine sometimes very tough art of governing as a center left politician in America. While I do like many of his policy prescriptions, I thought that he was pretty cowardly on health care and that he put forth a plan that would actually set the progressive agenda back. His plan strikes me as really a half-measure which leaves the free-rider problem entirely untouched. (By the way, I'm not entirely happy on this score with Hillary either. In my estimation the full measure on national health insurance would be single payer. Hillary proposes a 3/4 measure and Barack proposes a 1/2 measure IMHO). I also didn't really see anything new in his new politics. Mostly this is where he seemed to me almost entirely a pose. It may be that I really do prefer a tough as nails fighter of the kind that I believe Hillary to be.
So it wasn't much of a contest for me personally to choose between Hillary and Barack. I don't think I was ever tempted to join up. I should say that most of my friends in academia where I work and the entirety of my African American family are for Obama. So I hear a lot about his virtues from people I care a lot about and respect a lot.
His speech was the first thing that actually tempted me, however briefly, to his cause. It helped me to see that the man is really more than a pose, that he does have some inner strength and courage. And though I still don't really see much in him that has so far prepared him for the difficult work of governing this country, I am prepared to believe that his inner strength and moral courage makes him a candidate for real growth.
Let me hasten to add that I actually think that most presidents in my adult lifetime have been quite unprepared for the presidency. Carter was no doubt the most morally decent man to occupy that office in my adult lifetime. But he made a true mess of the job. RIght man, wrong job -- at least at the time. But I also happen to believe that the older, wiser Carter, more mature, deeper thinking Carter that emerged after the presidency would have made a remarkable president.
I also don't think Reagan was terribly well prepared or that Bill Clinton or George Bush II were either. Probably the best prepared was George I. But for all his preparation, he was a truly forgettable nothing as president, IMHO. Ronald Reagan, as strongly as I disagreed with him on just about everything, though somewhat less prepared than Bush I was at least a consequential and effective leader -- but then again so was Hitler, so that's not saying all that much.
So I'm not even saying that preparation is all. But if you've got preparation plus toughness plus judgment plus sound policy prescriptions, then that's hard to beat and that's what I see in Hillary. I see some of that in Barack, but less of it.
I digress, however.
The real point of this long missive is to say that I can see Barack growing into the job -- just as Bill Clinton grew into the job (after he made a mess of things politically in his first two years). So I could easily vote for him. But here's the thing. I find that I am getting really, really tired of Obama's supporters, at least some of the one's on this board. There's way to little mutual respect for competing points of view, way too many cheap shots and ad hominem attacks, way too much spin and misinterpretation and just plain ill will. There's also this sense of entitlement that calls into question Clinton's right to even keep fighting to win the nomination.
I admit that Clinton supporters don't have any cleaner hands. So it goes both ways.
But here's the question, if other Clinton supporters are feeling like I am -- that I just can't stand the thought of four years of self-righteous crowing from Obama supporters -- and if Obama supporters feel about us in return the way we feel about them, then we're all in a heap of trouble. Cause what we'll get is another Repugnant administration. And I'm so sick of that. You can't imagine how sick.
So what do we do folks? How do we change the tone of these conversations while still competing vigorously, so that we don't end up just sick to death of each other when this is finally over?
Any answers?
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