Last week I voted for Obama by absentee ballot.
I say this purely for rhetorical credibility. I actually detest political endorsements on sites like this, so I shall refrain from belaboring why. It did, however, have as much to do with Palin's negatives as it did Obama's positives. Perhaps more so, come to think of it.
I do not share the masturbatory fervor of the louder Obama supporters. I find their exuberant hope to be most audacious, indeed. I cannot join the fervor. I am instead cringing a bit. Perhaps he'll be a great president, the right man at the right time. I hope so. I just have no reason beyond hope to believe so. He supports asinine, thoroughly discredited positions like windfall profits taxes and a capital gains tax hike (yeah, an impending CGT hike will surely slow the Wall Street sell-off). He's accomplished little except 1) running for president and 2) not coincidentally, voting for positions as-written in the DNC platform 100% of the time. That's not a leader; that's an algorithm. I want more.
W created Obama. Contempt for the present president has led us to select his exact opposite, and frankly, I can think of worse methods for choosing his successor. Obama is curious, cautious, well-read, thoughtful, cool under fire. W is none of these things, and it cost the country and the world. So I get that. It appeals to me, too.
But Jesus, just listen to some of the Obama supporters. Listen to the vapid zeal. I distrust zeal. Zeal helped elect W twice, and zeal now makes Obama an empty vessel in which we see whatever we want. "You have to be impressed with his online fundraising!" squealed one fan. Huh? She grabbed my arm urgently. "No one else is doing that! It's revolutionary!" With respect, I don't particularly consider politicians whoring for money from their groupies a qualification for high office. Many more Obama fans have responded to my concern about his lack of qualifications with a chilling All we are saying/Is give an utter lack of qualifications a chance. I don't even know what to do with that. I thought we had in 2000.
The latest issue of Discover magazine has an article about how advertising affects the brain. Someone did MRIs while showing people pictures. Obama's picture caused the exact same part of the brain to fire as gold-standard advertising icons like the Nike swoosh and the iPod. I thought that the perfect metaphor for my fears until I arrived in Times Square and saw the street merchants pushing cheap stuffed animals with "Obama" stamped all over them. That's when you know your brand has arrived.
Into the audaciously hopeful abyss.