11.05.08
And so it ends…And so it begins.
I started following the 2008 race sometime in early 2007, when only the most pathological politics junkies were paying much attention. As a result, I peaked a bit too early, and by September I just wanted the darn thing to be over.
And now, finally, it is. There are still votes to count, and a few open races and ballot measures to resolve, but the Big One is in the can. For the first time in 12 years, we’ve gone to bed knowing who won, and the Atlantic Seaboard folks didn’t even have to stay up that late. For the first time since LBJ (I think), a Democrat won more than 50% of the popular vote. Though I had a preferred candidate, this was my greatest prayer – an unambiguous result. No “one-state” shenanigans and cries of stolen elections. (Voter fraud is another story, but that’s a Donkey Party tradition, and I doubt he needed it to win.)
In one sense, it’s good that the Democrat won. We’d already been warned months in advance that anything other than an Obama victory would mark America as a “racist” nation, and such philosophical luminaries as Erica Jong were warning of a “second civil war” in the event of a McCain “third stolen Bush term” victory. Well, no chance of that now. And, for the first time since Bill Clinton absconded with the White House furniture, the Daily Kos/MoveOn.org wing of the Democratic Party can consider themselves Americans again. Republicans are infinitely more gracious losers. (We made much of Clinton’s “never topped 50% of the popular vote” in the 1990s, but we never, EVER claimed he wasn’t the President. That juvenile insanity needs to die. Stake its heart, cut off its head, boil it in garlic, nuke it from orbit; leave no doubt. We may be two parties, but we are not Two Americas. We’re all in this together.)
Like 2006, it wasn’t the GOP’s year. Sen. McCain prevailed in the primaries largely on the backs of independents and Democrats, and because Mike Huckabee preferred to shred the party rather than let Mitt Romney anywhere near the GOP ticket. (Yes, I’m still bitter about that idiot’s personal vendetta.) Gov. Sarah Palin energized the base and helped make it much closer (popular vote) than I expected, but McCain is an honorable man who ran as a “my turn” candidate rather than with any platform of ideas the GOP was likely to rally around. My main reason for supporting McCain was his support for victory in Iraq and elsewhere, which America owes to our men and women in uniform who have sacrificed so much to make it possible. McCain’s real goal, it seemed, was to win the nomination he felt had been stolen from him in 2000. Had he fought with the same vehemence in the generals that he did in the primaries, he might have done better tonight.
By contrast, Barack Obama worked his bad-dancing butt off to win the presidency from…well, pretty much the day he was sworn into the Senate. He took on the “inevitable” Clinton machine and won the nomination. Although his post-racial, post-partisan facade slipped badly toward the end, his acceptance speech tonight was worthy of the historic moment of our first President-elect who happens to be black. He didn’t win BECAUSE he’s black; had that occurred it would have cheapened the accomplishment. Obama won because he ran a better race, and better motivated his base. He was opposed by over his policies, his past, and his personal associations…not for his pigmentation. (I really need to stop alliterating.) Considering how much money he raised, Barack’s true colors in 2008 are gold and green.
I don’t see Obama as “our first black President.” He’s not “African-American” in the traditional sense; his paternal ancestors don’t have that legacy of slavery; his Kenyan father spent little time in the U.S. His mother’s side of the family was fairly well off, and his education was more elite and privileged than most people’s, certainly more than mine.
Obama’s rise to prominence reminds me far more of John F. Kennedy than Jesse Jackson. JFK’s big hurdle was his religion. So, I would argue, was Obama’s. JFK had the Pope and Catholicism. Obama had Rev. Wright and Liberation Theology. For JFK’s presidency, religion turned out to not be much of an issue (especially that whole “thou shalt not commit adultery” thing). Only time will tell how much President Obama will bring from Wright’s pews to the Oval Office.
As a conservative, little of the Obama platform appeals to me. But as with any presidency, Obama’s will not be treated by the House or Senate as tablets inscribed by a burning bush on Mount Sinai. He may have solid Democratic majorities in both houses, but as Clinton and Carter learned, congressional Democrats have a legislative ego that transcends party. If he fails to treat them with proper respect, the unholy Pelosi/Reid duumvirate will school him in a hurry. And if Obama doesn’t treat the congressional GOP with at least minimal respect, they survive in sufficient numbers to throw their sabots into the machinery. It’s lopsided, but DC is still a two-party town. Bill Clinton made the grave mistake of calling the congressional GOP “irrelevant” in one of his first addresses to Congress. Less than two years later, he was bellowing that he was still relevant to the first GOP House majority in 40 years. Hubris is still the #1 killer of political ambition, and “The Messiah” had better chain someone to his side to whisper “remember thou art mortal” into his ear at every opportunity, or he’ll very likely be facing a GOP congress in 2010.
Vice President-elect Biden, the one-man growth market for American comedy, said that Obama will be tested. Does anyone believe he isn’t correct? Al Qaeda surely cannot resist the opportunity. Ahmadinajad’s Iran is drooling with anticipation. Likewise China, eager to assume dominance in the 21st century. (Yes, I’m learning Mandarin.) Venezuela. North Korea. Canada (*grumble* Zamboni-drivin’ freaks…) And our allies like Columbia, India, infant Iraq, Sarkozy’s France, nuclear Pakistan, etc. have to wonder what Obama’s America will mean to our relationship with them. Like JFK, I’m not that hopeful that President Obama will be ready from day one to handle a crisis. What will Obama’s Bay of Pigs (with lipstick) be? Or his Cuban Missile Crisis? How will he fare? Does it give ANYONE comfort that Joe Biden will be there every step of the way? Or that John friggin Kerry might be America’s Ambassador of Hopenchange as Secretary of State or Defense?
I don’t mean to be utterly negative. Obama claims to be a pragmatist, and if he turns out to be one then he’ll likely make some decent cabinet picks. He will push policies more left-leaning than I would prefer, but I believe in the sausage-grinder of American lawmaking; lips and buttholes become tasty, tasty frankfurters with the right preparation. And it takes just one catastrophe to change presidential priorities in a hurry. Witness 9-11, Hurricane Katrina, the Fannie May debacle. Under the right circumstances, even the biggest isolationist can become the most committed nation-builder. Even a Clinton can decide to pass comprehensive welfare reform. Even a “conservative” can pass a bailout bill that makes Sweden look capitalist. It’s all about adaptability. It’s less about getting your agenda passed than about dealing with the zillion things that you never guessed would come your way.
So…I head to bed knowing that our next President will be “that guy” rather than “my guy.” There are a lot of happy people in this country tonight, and many who are genuinely scared of what the next four years will bring. All of us will be Obama’s responsibility come January. He’ll be opposed – every president from George Washington to George Dubya has been, vehemently, and it would be unAmerican to expect otherwise – but how he deals with it will determine his legacy. The best Presidents exert influence far beyond their enumerated powers, by virtue of their skills and their character, and the nature of the challenges they face.
Frankly, I’d be happy if Pres. Obama is merely adequate, and presides over another “holiday from history” for the next four years. His “fundamental transformation” talk scares my side of the aisle. He may think of it in terms of unicorns and orgasms, but some of us have starker visions of gulags, reeducation camps, great depressions, and stuff going Boom. I’d be ecstatic with four boring, adequate, uneventful, not-unemployed years.
As much as I like and respect George W. Bush – and I do – the last eight years have been more eventful than anyone in 2000 imagined or hoped or feared they would be, George W. Bush included.
Oh well. Ready or not, here comes 44: Captain Messiah, and his sidekick Gaffey. I will pray for them, and for the country. Because I still believe with Ben Franklin that in these perilous times, we must all hang together, “or surely we must all hang separately.” United we stand, divided we fall. The American family will certainly bicker over who gets the good seat in the living room and control of the remote during prime-time…but we must work together to put our house in order and to get the damn neighbor kids off our lawn when they try to T.P. us.
So, congratulations, President-elect Obama. Whatever happens next, you made history tonight.
Don’t screw it up.