The part that I agree with: the best thing about Obama as a candidate is that he doesn't have the baggage of Vietnam and the '60s culture wars. It will be wonderful when we finally can have an election that isn't still about the Baby Boom's issues; I think everyone under 50 can agree on this.

but oh god, the rest of that. ick.

First, it's dumb politics to completely dismiss rural america. The cities already vote dem; the election is won or lost outside the cities. That's the strength of Kos's "libertarian democrat" frame; win the Mountain West and be more competitive in other rural areas.

Second, I HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE his frame of the "creative class". This sounds exactly like what the right loves to demonize as the "liberal elite" and it obviously leaves out a huge number of traditionally Democratic working people. I don't see this as a big enough segment to base a winning campaign on.

I'll post this now before I go on to 3 through 10...

The Four Horsemen of Bushism: War, Corruption, Hypocrisy and Greed

On the whole, the piece wreaks of a desire for a candidate that will not be reminding people of the great problems of the U.S.:  racism, poverty, the great gulf caused by unequal education and decades of deliberate building of fences between classes, ethnic groups, and cultures in this country.  Bowers seems to think that Obama can avoid these issues by virtue of his unusual background and characteristics. Or does he think Obama can bring up these issues without being portrayed as a special interest candidate? Does Bowers expect the Republican opposition to sign a special agreement to by-pass use of their traditional wedges if Obama is the Democratic candidate?

What is offensive, and not just illogical, is that Bowers has succumbed to the Northern urban elite assumptions that write off the rest of the country. Bowers sees Obama as a person like himself - urban and urbane, highly educated, comfortable among the powerful. He isn't coming out of small-town poverty (read: back-woods Southern hick with a strange accent who lacks the enlightenment that urban life provides).

I'll be perfectly snarky: I don't think the issue is Vietnam and the 60s versus the superiority of children of the 80s in moving past those divisions of the past. For Bowers, it's more like Mayberry vs. Seinfeld.

This: We were children of liberated women, steeped in the ethos of classic rock, fundamentally in opposition to the Reagan reaction, dipped in the righteousness of MLK. struck me as awfully cheery compared to the cultural ethos of the kids I hung out with (class of '82-'85).

Punk or death metal. Nihilism either way, plus a certainty that the world was going to end in nuclear fire so we might as well party our way to hell. MTV simply didn't register, that was for suburban rich kids. Most of us have since recovered, but there was no optimism among us and very little righteousness. We loathed Reagan but mostly ignored him since we were all going to die anyway and he was a symptom not a cause. Now I can't see a mohowk without getting a little bit nostalgic for my leather and chains days and thinking "isn't that cute?"

Kelly McCullough - author of WebMage, Cybermancy, and CodeSpell - ACE (Penguin)

So I was born in '75. Old enough to remember the horrors of the Reagan years (and raised by white collarish, liberal post-hippies), and I actually think that what Bowers says about Obama is a really good thing.

It might be a problem in the near term, (after all there are lots of people who HATE that the US is changing in this way) but in the long term he is right. Among people younger than 35, more are comfortable than uncomfortable with inter-racial dating. As you say, Booman, these issues were settled long ago.

As we move in to the future the face of politics- espcially progressive politics- will be hip and blended. It just seems somewhat disingenuous to sit around biching about how non-media savvy the Dems are and then complain when you get someone that comes across well in contemporary advertising demographic terms.

And for the record, I'd rather see Edwards.

The more control, the more that requires control. This is the road to chaos. -Frank Herbert, The Dosadi Experiment

I think it's more an awareness thing, not limited by age in any direction.

Those of us who have been involved heavily in politics know that when someone seems too good to be true, they usually are.

I have serious doubts re Obama. I've seen nothing from him but good speeches and charisma. In my book, however, that does not a leader make.

People are so hungry for a visionary they'll follow a mirage into the desert (apologies to Aaron Sorkin for bastardizing a line from "The American President"). And even educated people who have been concerned about politics all their lives, like my parents. But my parents are also idealists and have never worked the inside track, who don't know that compromise is always a part of the game, and that to me, the test of a real candidate is which compromises they will make, and which they won't. So far, I can't see that Obama has distinguished himself in any way besides being young and handsome and fresh with a voice fit for a fulltime radio spot. I mean, the guy could have been a movie star.

But President? I'm still waiting for some leadership from him, on ANY point, and I've yet to see it.

"If you look for the social economic motive, you will not have to wait for history to tell you what was propaganda and what was truth." - George Seldes

I didn't feel adversely affected by MTV, though if I was exposed to music I liked via that channel, I went out and bought the albums. I was 15 when Nirvana's big record came out and I'm ashamed to say I didn't relate to it for maybe 2 or 3 more years. What can I say- I was glued to Zoo TV. I tuned out on MTV just as videos went byebye and Real World came in. Had to go to college, see, where I could actually experience (and be in) real bands and go to real parties.

I don't feel highly educated with my English BA but I probably am- could run circles around anyone I met as far as history, geography, and politics were concered. Wrote better than them, too. That's mostly how I experienced politics as well- talked/debated with the 3 or 4 people I knew who kept up with current events that weren't OJ/Menendez type stuff- we did our homework.

So (to un-digress myself) as someone almost exactly in Chris' age group (I was 1 when Star Wars came out) I will say that while I am impressed by all that Obama is and may become, I really wish the guy would keep his goddam ambition in check for his first term and actually legislate. But that's just me. If he's the nominee, I will of course vote for him.

Anyway, BooMan, thanks for the opportunity to fill some space. And for the record, while you were all busy being your class of '87 self, my best friend and I were already handicapping the '88 campaign. We were  11 at the time. ;-)


My Band Rocks!

My question is simply this?  How in hell do you folks define "baggage" as it pertains to the Vietnam War and the 60's?  While I don't wear this baggage on my sleeve, I'm damn sure proud of it.  You people speak of it as if it's some kind of disease.  

At least we got off our asses and changed things for the better....and gave your generations a better country than we started our lives with.  Ya'll seem to believe that all changes come through political action, or through the keyboards.  That's bullshit.  You change things in the streets.  With numbers.  With passion.  Do you really believe politicians give a crap how many words you can produce in a day?

Get Real.  

It was 18 or so years ago and I was driving my kids home after we'd seen Tim Burton's "Edward Scissorhands." I was ranting about how atmospheric and weird it all was but -- what was the message, the content, the substance of what we'd just seen.

My fifteen year old son shut me down by emphatically saying, "It doesn't have to mean anything."

"So style is all that's needed?" I asked.

"Yep," he said, "There doesn't have to be anything underneath. It was pretty."

And now I'm so out-of-it I don't even think Obama is pretty.

I won't take you to task for your writing skills, because I think you're pretty good actually. And I won't take you to task for writing about whatever topic you choose, because that's your choice. But when you say this:

Bloggers must blog...about something. I mean, I really hate it when I get a comment that takes me to task for writing about something unimportant, or something that is distracting us from more important issues. How about my critics try to find four stories a day to write about, and have them all be of critical importance and all really well written and thought out? Try doing it everyday for almost two years? Then you can get my ear for criticisms of that type.

... isn't that just an admission that you're chasing your own tail? Good to know that the political discourse around here is now brought to us by the number four. And I thought it was bad enough that we had turned to shucking for the Dem Party... Let me just say right now, there is no way I would ever vote for the number four - even if it got Canadian citizenship and won the leadership of the Green Party.  I'm more of a pentaphile, myself.

Everybody Comes From Somewhere: Conversations and Activism

I think we want a President who is optimistic about working with other nations, about building consensus based on our values (values like human rights, freedom of religion, democracy, etc.) rather than creating international conflicts based on our differences, a la Samuel Huntington.

Whether Obama is the right person for this, it's hard to say, but I don't think you want a skeptical foreign policy. Skeptical oversight of our own government, yes. On the international stage, though, the US needs to return to the role of friendly honest broker, not skeptical war mongerer.

To get them however, they will need to actually show up where we can see them, have something of actual substance to say besides a bunch of meaningless BS, AND show us enough respect to actually LISTEN to us as well.

I live in a huge "Senior" apartment building of over 200 residents, heavily Republican, (and this city is full of places like this)  Talk about a campaign bonanza. But who ever shows up here?  Well, there is certainly an  abundance of right wing Christian Ministers holding forth here several times a week! The Repubs are stupendous at using the Church to get out the votes among seniors.

Like AG says, Wake the fuck UP, Hilary, Obama, Edwards, Gore or whoever else who wants to get elected,  and smell the opportunity here! Get your liberal Christians in here holding church services too, since thats what draws the folks out of their apartments. Throw a few low cost dinners and get some more often lonely older folks who will never turn down a chance to soclalise when they can. But mostly, show the hell UP and interact with US too!      

ONward!

The biggest thing I want to see in the 2008 campaign is real debate, not the fluff that has been offered by the spin-masters in the past.

Latino Político | "We are condemned to kill time, thus we die bit by bit." - Octavio Paz

I see a lot to like about him.  He has enough charisma for three people.  He is perhaps the best political orator I have seen since Reagan.  He has that gift, that natural ability to capture our attention, to ignite our hopes.  He has a Very Compelling Story.  And damn if he ain't good looking to boot.  Hell, he's prettier than John Edwards.  Than Hillary even.  He is the very model of a modern political candidate.  He is a Perfect Package.

And all of that just raises my bullshit radar to red alert.  I suppose it's time I confessed.  I'm a Reagan Democrat.  I voted for Reagan.  Twice.  I was utterly seduced by his rhetoric.  By the packaging around him.  Somewhere in his second term the differences between his rhetoric and the reality I saw all around me got to be too much to ignore.  The cognitive dissonance finaly popped me out of the bubble.

And I learned a lesson.  I will never again be seduced by packaging.  Anyone who asks for my vote gets automatic demerits for having a Perfect Package.  If I can't see some there there beyond the rhetoric and the glitter and the hype, they go on my suspicious list.  

And what worries me most about Obama is how very quick the corporate media and the Beltway pundits have been to christen him a rock star.  To offer him up as the perfect antidote to the supposed Hillary juggernaut.  That's what bothers me the most.  The talking heads on corporate media love him.  That in itself is enough to make me want to run the other way.

Have I ever told you about my poor memory?