30 Minutes of Barack Obama

Last night's 30 minute campaign broadcast from the Obama campaign was brilliant.

John McCain was never mentioned. Instead, the ad featured the stories of those struggling to make it in Bush's economy. Real people with obviousy real problems. Each vignette was followed with Obama listing the specific steps he will take to alleviate the troubles of those featured and others like them. The message was effective: There are too many important things to talk about to waste time on jabs at the opponent. I'm no expert, but it seems to me that this is a strategy that will appeal to inexplicably undecided voters who have indicated in the polls of the last several weeks that they consider negative campaigning a distraction.

At the end, I was left wondering what McCain would look like on air for thirty minutes, and I could not imagine wàtching him talking to and empathisizing with the common man, nor do I think he would be able to refrain from his Bill Ayers/ he's a socialist/ he's un-American diatribe that seems to constitute the sum total of his presidential vision. We need better than that. We deserve better than that.

Let's Get Real

I will not concede that the voters of this nation ultimately believe that John McCain is the man to lead us into a world of new and daunting challenges.

I will not concede that this election will be won by John McCain, a man who has appealed to the very worst of human frailties (fear of the different, lack of vision, narrow-mindedness), rather than the best in us, in order to win.

I refuse to believe that Americans will choose to live within the tight knot of anger, pessimism, and disdain that sits at the heart of John McCain's philosophy.

I believe, rather, that America will see that Barack Obama, the man who has inspired a surge of optimism in those who have long been disenfranchised, and who, with great intelligence and dignity, has demonstrated what an American president should be, will stand at a podium and accept the nation's mandate for positive change.

And I mean it.

But dear GOD I need this election to be over. I can't take the anxiety.

Nightmares

I woke up at one o'clock in the morning thinking what if that old man wins? What if playing dirty does the job? Again?
Even mainstream pundits now discuss the stealing of the 2000 and 2004 elections as if it were a given (where were you then?), so we know all about defeat being snatched from the jaws of victory. But this election is somehow different even from the tragedy in two acts that constitutes the new millenium thus far in American politics. In this election, a line has been drawn in the sand, and for many, an Obama loss at this stage--a commanding lead in the polls, the electrifying enthusiasm of people of color and young voters, the searing intellect, the ability to remain calm in the face of bigotted filth slingers-- will be nothing but clear evidence of institutionalized racism. Out of the closet; end of denial.
And what then? How does our country survive that?
If this election goes to a myopic, fear-bating, right-wing pandering old crank, I can tell you this: This forty-something middle class white guy from the suburbs might join the villagers in chasing someone up a windmill.