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I have watched the deteriorating discourse on this forum. I was a content contributor to DU long before I first signed on as a member. DU was an unbelievable tonic to me during the ups and downs of our futile quest to get John Kerry elected. DU has been such a haven from the brutality of the last seven years that I may have become a bit of an addict. Familiar names are like old friends to me even though I have never met them and know very little about them. Since we narrowed it down to two Democratic candidates this place has become a pretty rough neighborhood. It’s sad to see the change, but we are focusing on the dead serious business of electing someone to get this country out of reverse and to reclaim ground we have lost with a total idiot in charge for two terms.
It would be nice to believe, as I once did, that any Democratic nominee would be good enough. My appreciation of the gravity of the mess Bush will leave us and a closer look at our remaining choices has convinced me that we do not have the luxury of two equally qualified candidates. The primary campaign has been very revealing and I, like Bill Richardson, see only one good choice. Maybe it is Hillary Clinton’s advisors who have decided it was worth it to trash the Clinton brand in pursuit of a return to power. They have gradually turned my ambivalence into an intense dislike of their candidate and the former president I once supported and respected without condition.
I was a Clark guy, a Gore guy and an Edwards guy. I had nothing against Barack Obama. I just saw him as the logical heir to more well known Democrats with a long political future ahead of him. The Clinton campaign has saddened me and at times nauseated me to the point that I started looking closer at the junior senator from Illinois. I became more receptive to the idea that we could not wait for him to work his way up the ladder of succession.
This weekend I got up very early to get in line for his town hall meeting in my hometown. I quickly found that even in a very conservative community, “O-dark-thirty” isn’t early enough if you want to get close to Barack Obama. After two hours I was relieved to find that being in the front third of the line was good enough to get me in the door. Once inside, I felt a kind of electricity two hours before Obama was to appear. Several times I questioned my own sanity for expecting something special from a young senator who I had never even heard of before 2004.
Obama bashers will no doubt find something cultish about my reaction once the senator entered the room. I showed all the signs: tears, goose bumps and dropped jaw. I already knew and agreed with his positions. I just wanted to see the man in action and he did not disappoint. If greatness is a color, this man is vivid great. His confidence is presidential in a way that frat boy gunslinger swagger is the antithesis of presidential. He is the great communicator without the theatrics. He is quick on his feet without being evasive. He talks to a very diverse audience without pretending to be one of them or in any way above them. He is not ashamed of his brilliance and unafraid to use the wealth of facts at his command.
I have lost a number of dear friends to cancer in the span of two weeks so I an finally coming to grips with my own mortality. This election is not for my future. I have two wonderful sons and a precocious grandson who deserve a far better future than what we have been headed toward during seven years of unparalleled incompetence and unfairness. I want this man designing their future. I want this man making the friends in the world that they will need in a challenging new world. I want this man answering the phone.
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