Obama

So I've just finished reading the New Yorker's recent profile of Obama (yes, in the infamous one with the Obama satire - all I have to say about that debate is - how stupid are you newspeople, for the love of Pete - it's SATIRE, look it up in the dictionary if you aren't sure what it means). I am feeling somewhat ambivalent, as usual, about Obama. I have been an Obama supporter since John Edwards stepped out of the race, and I still am. The piece is very straightforward about the fact that Obama is, indeed, (gasp) a politician who knows how to work the system. And that he is a pragmatic guy, who will compromise to make progress on an issue. I find these things comforting and reassuring, since otherwise, he would suffer a long slow Carter-esque death once he got to Washington. What I worry about at the same time, however, is that "young America" who have been whipped up into a frenzy over Obama (googling "Obama Mania" yields almost 81,000 hits), may be losing the rose colored glasses, growing disaffected, and may then, as usual, fail to come out to vote in November. Every election cycle, there are stories about the elusive 18-24 demographic, and I thought that this time, maybe this once, young people would come out in droves to vote for Obama and perhaps, just maybe, this country could begin to pull itself out of the horrific muck of the past 8 years. Because I'm not sure he can do it without them, and now I'm not so sure they'll be there. Not so sure what can be done about this problem, since it's not really Obama's problem, but the youth who are looking for a savior. And does this remind anyone of other dangerous times in history when people are desperately looking for a cure-all - one person who can save them from destruction? Obama is a politician, and he's a darn good one. He's also someone who is willing to compromise to get what he wants, not an ideologue. He also knows how to recruit good people to help him get the job done. Anyone who runs for President of the United States has to have a gargantuan ego (who sits down and thinks - I am totally qualified to be the leader of one of the strongest global powers in history). This is something we need to accept. The question needs to be - how does this person think about the issues? How do they approach a problem? Can they offer solutions, but be flexible when they need to and hard when they need to? Do they seem to be concerned for people's well being- or only their own? These are really hard questions to answer. Of course, no one really asks these questions anymore (thanks, Ryan Lizza, for doing so). I hope Obama lives up to his promise, and I dearly hope that if he becomes President he can energize our country and change our direction. We'll see....