Obama Fever

[monk222]

♠
It's been a while since I've heard the Obama tide rising again. Sully is apparently feeling some Obama fever:

I went to see Obama last night. He had a fundraiser at H20, a yuppie disco/restaurant in Southwest DC. I was curious about how he is in person. I'm still absorbing the many impressions I got. But one thing stays in my head. This guy is a liberal. Make no mistake about that. He may, in fact, be the most effective liberal advocate I've heard in my lifetime. As a conservative, I think he could be absolutely lethal to what's left of the tradition of individualism, self-reliance, and small government that I find myself quixotically attached to. And as a simple observer, I really don't see what's stopping him from becoming the next president. The overwhelming first impression that you get - from the exhausted but vibrant stump speech, the diverse nature of the crowd, the swell of the various applause lines - is that this is the candidate for real change. He has what Reagan had in 1980 and Clinton had in 1992: the wind at his back. Sometimes, elections really do come down to a simple choice: change or more of the same?

... I fear he could do to conservatism what Reagan did to liberalism.

The main concern, as picked up by Sully, is whehter Obama is still too uncertain a trumpet in the War on Terror. Some of his fans would say that it is good that he is not so geared up on it because there is no such war, or at least there shouldn't be. How the electorate, as a whole, will come to think about Obama and how he will handle national security issues is another question.

For the moment, I'm just impressed over how Obama can affect people when he is met in person, as Sullivan certainly fell under that magic. That's charisma!


(Source: Andrew Sullivan)

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Comments

[antilapsarian.livejournal.com]

Given the angry letters to the editor around here, the Democrats may actually be helping Obama out with the war-funding. People seem to have expected real change (an end to the war in Iraq and concentration on better things), haven't gotten it, are pissed, and Obama is riding the inevitable wave of good fortune at mostly being removed from all that. He puts the focus on more important matters, right where it belongs, people love him for it, and he seems to be the only candidate so far gaining any real respect. Bush is clinging to his legacy--for better or worse, mostly worse--in Iraq. The Democrats have been largely stagnant in battling the President. It seems like everybody is just waiting around until President Obama comes in, Congress can work with him, and MAYBE something gets done. That is the big *if* though. For all his hope, there is a lot of cleanup after Dubya.

Early Days

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

I find it a little amusing to see how all the Republican candidates are still stumbling about, almost as though there is no point in their campaigns. But it's very early days.