Over the course of the last several months an analogy would pop into my head. Knowing that only Seinfeld fans would get it, I tucked it away for another day. Now with so many why Obama posts from Clinton supporters, I offer this analogy.
The concept of "Bizarro" has been ingrained in popular culture where it has come to mean a weirdly mutilated version of anything, not confined to characters in DC Comics publications<1> and as such, so has the concept of Bizarro World.
The concept of "Bizarro World" is a fundamental element in "The Bizarro Jerry", the 137th episode of American sitcom Seinfeld. In the episode, Elaine makes a new group of friends who represent inverted types of the normal Seinfeld gang. Jerry labels them a bizarro world. These characters are kind, considerate, curious about the world around them, and good citizens.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bizarro_JerryReagan had political talents recognized by the GOP that transformed our country in ways that most of us find abhorrent. White working class Reagan Democrats became Republicans and their children identified with Republicans. This transformation of political identity led to a shift in power that Democrats have been hard pressed to do much about. Bill Clinton, the only charismatic candidate for POTUS since JFK gave us some hope, only to see it dashed when we lost congress in 1994.
I am first and foremost a pragmatic supporter. I don't pick a POTUS over policy details. POTUS is a veto pen and a bully pulpit. POTUS is but one coequal branch of government.
As a person from a late voting primary state I have always just watched as early voting states vote with their heads often too much and not enough with their hearts IMHO. I didn't even watch the early debates or obsess over the details of competing health plans because POTUS is a veto pen and a bully pulpit and but one of three coequal branches of government.
What does this have to do with the Bizarro Jerry? Over the past few months some of the most highly respected democrats have made references to Obama as a phenomenon, a talent the likes of which has not been seen in decades. I submit to you that Obama is OUR Bizarro Reagan. Obama has a gift. I am secular so I will not claim it is a gift of god, never the less he is gifted. I don't make this claim without evidence. The evidence is in the crowds that wait in line for hours to go through metal detectors to see him. It is the Obama signs I see in college students apartment windows, something I never saw for Kerry or Gore. It is the 1.5 million and growing small donors, it is the shattering of fund raising records. It is the independents, the normally apolitical youth, the bottom up grass roots activism that have made his success possible.
I ask Clinton supporters to have some trust that all those donors and voters who have supported Obama are not idiots. Obama has won against all odds. Please don't compare Obama to Mondale, Gore, Kerry, Dukakis, or McGovern. Today is a new day, the time is now. This is what we have been waiting for. Bizarro World is ours, and it is good.
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