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So I'm reading the USA Today while eating lunch today and there's a big editorial near the end of the front page section talking about Obama supporters. While I don't think it was the authors intent to paint them as a bunch of brain washed loonies, but more to point out what others are saying about them, it did use all the words typical of the anti-Obama crowd: Brain-washed, hysterical, glassy-eyed, cult, worshipers - even the title to the piece is Obama's Believers. Many of the quotes were from the usual group (I don't want to call them Hillary supporters so much as Obama bashers), David Brooks from the New York Times. Joe Klein of Time magazine.
I did a little eye-rolling as I read through this crap but did take a minute to think about why I support Obama.
It's because I like him.
I'm a 34 year old white guy from Texas, now living in D.C. and for the first time in my entire life, I may get to vote for a candidate I like. Not the candidate who I think of as the lesser of two evils or the candidate who I think is most closely aligned with me politically, but a candidate that I genuinely like. He is a candidate that I see as a peer, not a parent (or grand-parent, in McCain's case). He's someone that can relate to Generation-X. I bet he knows how to use an I-pod. I bet he could beat you (but not me) at Halo-3. I bet he knows who the Foo Fighters and Wu-Tang are.
More than just being able to relate to him though, I think he is a diplomat. Experience be damned! I want a real, true diplomat back in the White House! Hillary talks about how she is a fighter. I'm tired of fighters. I want a talker. With Obama in the White House I don't think you have to worry about who's covering the phones at 3:00 AM because a true diplomat will solve problems before they get to that level. Hillary's campaign, through it's fear-mongering commercials, through it's aggressive stance, through it's old-style slash-and-burn politics has really allowed Obama's style to shine. I think Obama is someone who will be able to look at the politics of the world through new eyes not clouded with decades of political jading because folks, what we got now ain't working. I look at Obama and I don't see a rockstar or a religious figure or some new age cult leader...I see a guy who talks about things that I nod my head to and say "Yeah, that's how I feel too."
It's really been telling to talk to people at my office of mostly 30-somethings. Of the eight people I work closely with every day, six are voting for Obama. All except one is within five years of my age. The bible thumper and the older guy who work with us are bothpretty moderate conservatives and will vote for McCain. Of the Obama supporters two are women, all the others white males. They all say the same things...anything but more politics as usual! Give us something new, even if we are taking a bit of a gamble! It's exciting in that way that trying a new, exotic food is for the first time. Hillary is seen as the old: War, Defense, Safety, Protection, Fight. We see her as an armored knight standing before a flood of enemy troops with her sword drawn. With Obama, we use totally different verbiage: Outreach, Diplomacy, New, Young and yeah, even Risky. He's the guy standing there in a T-shirt and jeans saying "okay, lets talk."
When I look at them on the issues, I think Hillary and Obama are pretty close. I've also been following politics long enough to know that there are exactly zero candidates that I'm going to see eye-to-eye with on every issue. I understand that politics, by it's nature is the essence of compromise. You give a little here and try to get some more over there. Advancing progressive causes is going to be one of baby steps. It will not happen over night. It will not happen all at once. While I tend to be pretty close to Obama on the issues, I'm not far from Hillary. The difference to me seems to be their ability to talk about what they believe in. With Obama, I get the sense that if I said "I don't like your stance on (X)" he would say "okay, tell me why" and Hillary would say "okay, go fuck yourself." With Obama I get a sense that he can respect opinions that don't agree with his. With Hillary I sense it's her way or the highway.
At the end of this year, for the first time in my life I think I'm going to walk into a voting booth and cast a vote for a presidential candidate that I like. Not the candidate I think is best for the job (although I do think that's Obama), not a candidate that I dislike the least. The candidate that I like.
And damn that feels good.
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