It's Close as Can Be in Texas

To the person who wrote:

"Emotional rhetoric and the word 'unite' are not going to fix foreclosures or our healthcare system, and neither is Obama. "

Actually, I would beg to differ. The fundamental problems with our country (health care, social security, foreclosures, etc, etc) aren't going to be solved with 50 percent plus 1 of the vote. I think we learned that with the health care debacle during the 90s when the Clintons not only had the White House but also comfortable majorities in both houses of Congress.

For anything of great consequence to be done in this day and age, you need to assemble a broad coalition, which is to say the people need someone who can be a unifying force in this country. Is Obama that person? I don't know; decades of partisan rancor have so poisoned the body politic that I'm not sure anyone could. But, at least he's trying.

Clinton, on the other hand, has run a campaign based largely on the premise that she's the most ready to fight the opposition tooth and nail on day one. That's fine, except that, given a choice, I'd rather not fight the opposition; I would rather try to persuade and co-opt them to my side--or at least the reasonable members of them. I'm tired of the fear-mongering, the demonization of one's political enemies, the arbitrary distinction about who is "significant" and who isn't, and most of all, the endless finger pointing.

The Clintonites tell me this is how it is, how it's always been, and how it always will be. Maybe. Certainly, I've accepted that in all the past elections that I've participated in, but I see where it's gotten us.

Obama is relatively new to the national political scene, but he's smart, has shown a remarkable learning curve, has shown mastery of the ability to blunt cheap attacks, has managed the most impressive and effective campaign operation that I've seen in my lifetime, and substantively shares 90% or more of the policy positions of all the mainline Democratic contenders from Clinton to Biden to Edwards.

But, his approach is something different, "naive" as the Clintonites suggest. So I say, if Obama is indeed a "roll of the dice," then let them roll!

HT of CA 3:35PM February 29, 2008