What? And Sacrifice Han and Leia?
More and more lately I've been talking to my friends about where this country is, where we're going. Lots of big picture stuff, race in America, the economy stupid, The War, elections both past and future. Out of these discussions have come some pretty smart comments. Like CK's likening the way Americans view their government to a mis-managed football league.
"Say that every NFL contract expired on the same day and so you had guys telling fans to hire them because they threw three TDs in a game two years ago. Then, imagine that you had other guys telling fans NOT to pick that guy cuz while they might have thrown three TDs in that one game, they threw four picks in another game. Imagine that this goes down for a few weeks and eventually, before the trade deadline, everyone picks their rosters and then, stops watching the games. That's right, you don't bother to watch a single NFL game for three and a half seasons. Then, with eight games left in that fourth season and the signing period looming again, people start paying attention."
Yknow, sometimes that kid knows what's up.
On Monday morning, I awoke to a piece on NPR about Barack Obama hanging out in New Hampshire mulling a potential presidential bid. Yup, midterms were a month ago and we're already getting ready for the presidential primaries. Ugh. As I started to wake up I tried to fit a report in December of '06 about a potential candidate for a primary in January of '07 into CK's description of a country where people ignore all the games for a few years before deciding who to draft when I cringed.
I cringed because the weight of what was being discussed on the radio. Barack Obama, Democratic contender for president.
Hang on. I like Sen. Obama. I actually envy that my parents got to vote for him two years ago and that they will have the privilege to vote for him again in four years. I believe he's as close to Jed Bartlett as reality can actually produce so I'd actually like to vote for him for president, shit, I'd like for him to actually be president. But, I just don't get the feeling that '08 is the year for him.
No, I'm not talking about "electability." I've said it before and I'll say it again, electability is bullshit. It's a real nice way of coming up with a bland candidate that your base can't get excited over so you're stuck depending on fickle swing voters who don't have enough ideological fortitude to lace up their shoes in the morning. Yeah, that sounds like a GREAT way to pick a candidate, leave it to the guy who spaces on sending his reply card for his best friend's wedding cuz he can't decide on "beef or fish?"
And this isn't some racial bullshit, saying that this nation won't vote for a black man for president. Nor am I saying they're not going to vote for the guy with the funny name. Time and time again the people of this country have proved to me that much like an episode of Ugly Betty, this nation's people are not where its politics would lead you to believe. Don't believe me? When I lived in Kansas, the country station had Dolly Parton's "Traveling Through" on heavy rotation. And every time they played it the DJ made sure to mention what movie it was from and what a great movie it was. Yup, the guy on a local country station in Kansas was pumped about the movie about a transsexual on a roadtrip. In the America the pudnits live in, this wouldn't have happened.
Hang on, I'm seriously tearing up here. Let me get my shit back together and I'll finish my story.
Right, so what the hell am I saying here, why the hell don't I think Obama can win yet? One more anecdote to drive home my point. Later on Monday morning, I'm still thinking about the NPR report I woke up to three hours earlier. "Dude, is Obama gonna run? Can he win? Who else do the Dem's have? Why does McCain both thrill and scare me? WHAT!?! is that an Obama '08 bumper sticker in front of me?"
Yes, it was.
Right there, on December 11, 2006, on Cerillos Road in Santa Fe, New Mexico was a truck with HOMEMADE bumper sticker touting Barack Obama's unannounced run for the presidency of the United States of America. Not just any truck either, this was a freakin' Ford F-250 with dualies, a crew cab and black fuzzy dice hanging from his rearview mirror. The driver? An actual cowboy, grizzled and worn, an old timer who sits at a bar in this town and laments what's happened to it. Yup, he had taken the time to actually make two bumper stickers and place them on the back of his truck.
So why don't I think Sen. Obama can win? Because, the stickers said "Barack '08." The cowboy knows he wants to vote for this guy, but he doesn't know this guy's name. He thinks he does, but in reality he doesn't know the which is his first name and which is his last. He knows that all the contracts are about to expire and he heard about this one player that threw for three TDs in that one game and he wants him to captain his team. Only, he doesn't know his name.
If Sen. Obama is going to be president, he's going to bring to the office the kind of vision Howard Dean only pretended to have. If he brings that kind of vision, he's going to need one helluva mandate. The kind of a mandate that only comes from people rising up to support you because of not just what you stand for, but because they understand what you believe, because you've successfully communicated your vision to them.
Recent history has shown us that the time for communicating a vision of what this nation is capable of is not a presidential election. No, the time for communicating your vision is during those 3.5 football seasons when no one is watching. The way to communicate a vision is to get fans to notice those seasons, to get them to tune in and thrill to your TDs in realtime, to show them that you don't throw picks and can manage the clock.
I don't have an ending, and having read this over a few times, I don't even know if I have a point. I hope that Cody's right and '08 isn't about winning for Obama, it's a practice run for the big time...I just hope he doesn't screw up the future by not being patient. Where the hell's Yoda when you need him?
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Good post, and interesting reading, but I have to call bullshit on "the kind of vision Howard Dean only pretended to have." I wish I had more time to debate it at length, but Dean, though he made some mistakes and more importantly got fucked sideways by the Democratic Party and the media, was the real deal. His vision is what got us the Democratic 110th Congress.
1) Go-bama 2008. That's my call.
2) I've got a friend who works for the junior Senator from the state of IL. Every time I see that kid out at happy hour, I don't have to ask if his boss is the real thing, the look on his face does it for me, because he's got a pretty bad poker face.
OMG, I am so totally with what you say here. Why don't you get involved in politics? You are so freaking dead on about all of this.
And the situation is scary. What the hell are we gonna do? I can't bear to see Hillary in. She gives me a nasty and gross feeling all over (Incidentaly, are they any cool female politicians?) The McCain thing arouses passionately contradictory emotions in me. Sometimes I really love him. Other times he's just another disgusting conservative. Even if McCain were in cool renegade mode, what would happen to the Democrats if he became President? Would it make the Democrats become better or worse? Would if lead to Obama in 2012?
Re: Scott
Dean made his campaign on his use of new media and got screwed over by his use of old media. That being said, you can't negative campaign in Iowa...that was just dumb. However, there's a reason they "promoted" him to DNC chair, he puts asses in fundraiser chairs.
Re: McCain
2008 is a crazy year. Can McCain make it through a primary given the number of extreme religious righters who came to the table in the last 6 years?
Re: Lily
Check out Amy Klobachar from MN. She's going to be an asskicker.
Re: Obama
I'm with Al. Go-Bama is the best ticket (for Obama that is). I haven't had time to look it up, but I think Obama for President can raise money and bank it should he not be running for President. Additionally, he needs the 2008 cycle to fill his rolodex. He doesn't have the numbers on speed dial that Gore and Clinton do.
I think he is the real thing.
Re: Wildcard
If Franken runs in MN, I kind of want to work for him. #1 I love that guy. #2 Coleman is a douchebag.
Also, McCain just hired the guy who ran those nasty ads against Ford Jr. in TN. So we know what he's loading for.
Cody, I'm not saying Dean was perfect, or that he didn't make dumb mistakes in his campaign (but it wasn't just his campaign that cost him the nomination). His vision may not have been complete or sufficient, but neither was it wrong or imaginary.
It's not even just about fundraising, it's about turning the Democratic party back into a national organization.
But I'll stop with the offtopic now.
I would have voted McCain over Gore in 2000.
I might vote for McCain over Clinton.
And I've *never* voted Republican.
Obama at least is a breath of fresh air.