Obama, the One Hit Wonder
But with the rock star candidate hobbled by the preacher and bomber, it’s hard to imagine that Barack Obama won’t be looking more like an aging one hit wonder come fall against John McCain.
If only the party knew enough to be proud of her. Through the grueling ordeal of personal attacks, money problems and disdain from the media, Hillary has handled the frustration of going from the ordained candidate to the discarded with remarkable agility. You may not like her, but it sure is tough not to admire her fortitude — this woman keeps her eye on the horizon. Plus, she seems impossible to defeat.
And guess what? These are all good things.
Over the short term, he wears well. He’s smart, he’s fair, he’s decent, and it sure seems as if he’s honest. A pretty special guy. It looks, remarkably, like Barack is the real deal.
Then we start to meet his friends, family and business associates, and we get a creepy vibe. Those aren’t people I’d surround myself with, we say to ourselves. The guy makes lots of excuses, says he understands how we feel, but he just can’t walk away from those bad kids he grew up with politically.
The glow of perfection devolves, as surely it must, when Obama faces the test of time. Intelligence starts to read as arrogance, eloquence gives way to stammering and words too carefully chosen, and the true life story, we learn, doesn’t quite match the sales pitch. A sinking feeling sets in, one that says this was an attraction driven by the irrational exuberance of lust instead of true love.
That’s how the Democratic nomination is playing out, with the two candidates on opposite trajectories — Hillary getting better with time, Barack looking worse. Who’d have thunk it?
Here’s the question that Democrats must answer: Is the party’s commitment to Barack Obama more important than this election? If his hold on them is strong enough, they’ll give him the nomination and throw the election. If not, they’ll send him back to the bench to wait for next time, and give the nomination to the only Democrat in t