OBAMA PROMISES TO TAKE THE POLITICIAN OUT OF POLITICS
Offering a bold vision in which lions lay down with lambs in American politics, Barack Obama accepted the endorsement of the Kennedy clan today, with fanfare.
Obama's record would be hard to describe as "bold", any more than Bill Clinton's could be adequately described as ...steadfast, on some issues.
Ted Kennedy always stirs the spirit. Like a Viking Chef, he can still turn on the flames -- his floor speech on behalf of the Matthew Shepard Act comes to mind from just last year. It was moving to see him onstage, endorsing a candidate who, in so many ways, is the embodiment of Kennedy-style outreach for 40 years.THE CHIEF PROBLEM IN AMERICA IS OUR POLITICS
The problem in America is our politics. Both parties are peddling that now, except Hillary, who thinks that the wrong policies are the problem in America. Romney, for his part, thinks he can run, like Reagan, as a do-gooder Governor who wants to change "government in Washington" (even GOP government has failed). McCain is well positioned to run on that platform, because of his 'outsider' politics inside the Republican party.
Politics doesn't change. I distrust that message to the core.
Still, no one is immune to the vigorous message and the sense of hope, the changing of the tides (even Disraeli had to create his own political movement ...). On the whole, I'm more evenly tempered. I understand the emotional cycles that drive candidacies (like stocks?).
THE 'PEOPLES'What does change is the people in politics, the people who are willing to take the risks to fight the good fight. On that score, so far, I think the candidates are fairly evenly matched. Obama's record would be hard to describe as "bold", any more than Bill Clinton's could be adequately described as ...steadfast, on some issues.
However, Obama does seems on the verge of changing what people think of themselves (not quite there yet), and perhaps that will change what they expect of others.
That could "change politics" for a time, until 'the system' moves back into equilibrium.
