Hope can be a Campaign Platform

Recently a good friend of mine said (in reference to Barack Obama's presidential bid), "I'm sorry, but 'hope' isn't a viable campaign platform." At the time I felt that statement held a lot of truth, that there wasn't as much substance behind all the warm and fuzzy rhetoric coming from Obama's camp -though I still supported him- as from some of the other candidates. I was confident Clinton would be the next president - still am to some degree - and was rather content in reflecting on that prediction. I still think she would far outperform any of the Republican candidates, but I now find myself becoming severely depressed at the thought that anyone but Obama will take the next Oath of Office.

I'm a fairly big political geek and read various blogs regularly, but normally forgo reading the incredibly shallow and short-sighted comments that follow each. Ironically it was in one of these comments that I read the most relevant and revelatory political analogy of the current race. The analogy likened the current (at the time) Democratic candidates to the three who were struggling for the nomination in 1968: Hubert Humphrey, Bobby Kennedy, and Eugene McCarthy. The sheer aptness of this statement bowled me over. Clinton, like Humphrey, is clearly the establishment candidate who - though undoubtedly well-meaning - would basically kowtow to special interests and be only marginally more progressive than the Republican candidate. Edwards, like McCarthy, is a man with undeniable integrity and impressive progressive credentials, but who lacks both the charisma and the innate campaigning instinct to overcome a varied, chimerical opposition. Obama is the closest thing we have to Bobby Kennedy, whom many people think was even more politically gifted than his older brother.

I'm supporting Barack Obama because, as cliched as it sounds, he's exactly what this country needs right now. He probably won't be able to end all the petty meanness and anger that are everpresent in Washington, but he's the one who has the best chance of making America a country to be proud of again. This election isn't about black or white, male or female, republican or democrat; it is about hope for a better tomorrow. Let's get there together.