History was made Aug. 28, 2008 in Denver. I've said it before and I'll say it again,
Obama has already won.
He has won the hearts and minds of millions. He has bridged divides across generations, racial and economic demographics and even political allegiances. He has raised more money from more people than any candidate in history. He has sparked more energy and more hope for a brighter tomorrow than anyone since Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Barack Obama has impressed more folks, overcome more obstacles, surprised more pundits and made fools of more critics than any other politician in recent memory. He has already made history over and over again. He has broken record after record ... and continues to raise the bar even higher for those who follow.
Obama has already won.
Barack Obama is one of only 100 elite members of Congress sitting in the Senate.
He and his wife are both graduates of the most prestigious college in the nation. And the word "celebrity" is attached to him in order to say that even among politicians he is esteemed and revered.
Obama packs in crowds wherever he travels; and makes a group of 20,000 attendees at his political opponent's gathering look like the overflow crowd that couldn't get in at an Obama rally. China spent hundreds of millions to put on the most fabulous Opening Ceremony in the history of the Olympic Games, yet Obama drew more television audience with a single speech than the Chinese did with all of their sophisticated entertainment to open an historical event.
Obama has already won.
From here to November, every political trick there ever was will be played against him. And although there is nothing new under the sun, we should be prepared for a re-packaging of a variety of old tactics that will appear new in order to gain an element of surprise.
We should not be shocked at the emergence of betrayal and backstabbing. And we should be prepared for the inevitable viciousness and nastiness that will seek to undermine this one man on his way to the most powerful seat in the world.
Article comments
1 - Dave Nalle
Agreed. Obama has won remarkable symbolic victories. His accomplishments are that much more remarkable for his truly unimpressive track record and his lack of qualifications prior to 2004.
All of this will come down to the question of whether the American people will buy the slick talk or see through it to the emptiness beneath. To whether they will mistake the symbol for the substance and vote without thinking. If they do then Obama will win.
But Obama reminds me an awful lot of another Democrat who made great speeches just about a century ago, William Jennings Bryan. Just like Bryan he was a lawyer for social causes. Just like Bryan he is charismatic and a great speaker. And ultimately he fits one critic's description Bryan perfectly: "Like the Platte River, he's six inches deep and six miles wide at the mouth."
That's not what I want in a president no matter how many great speeches he makes.
Dave
2 - Angela
I have been more involved in what is going on in this presidential election than I have been the first time I was allowed to vote. Even during that time it was more a the feeling of being "grown up" than what the candidates were saying or what they stood for. This year over 20 years later I am engaged in the political process and learning so much more about or government and the election cycle. Senator Obama brings it to the forefront as to what kind of America we want. These last eight years have been tough. Some stories of despair don't make the evening news. But you see it in the faces that attended that acceptance speech. You don't see "kool-aid" fans of Obama. You see America thirsting for change and finding it in a man that lifts your spirits higher than anyone has in a long time. I hear time and time again that he is an empty suit with empty promises. But as smart as he is, he could have been anywhere making the kind of money that actual "celebrities" make. But he started out knowing that there needed to be a change. He has brought more people in the political arena. More people are just sitting there watching an evening news letting them decide for them.
Anyone who draws that interest in people is definitely a leader!!
3 - Karen
Dave- I'm sure you want someone who can't and never has been able to identify with the struggles of the common american people. You want the rich and famous who haven't a clue on our needs and someone who knows very well how to spend millions/billions of dollars. You want someone with empty promises to lead us into a misguided war. you don't want change. You want the same deficit, the same error, and the same type of president.
Guess what, you won't get it this time.
Karen
4 - Arch Conservative
Why do these Obamabots assume that they speak for all Americans?
I abhor Obama and everything he stands for.
I personally know and/or have witnessed many many others who feel the same way as I do.
So please cut out this Obama is going tounite us all bullshit.
I have an idea Mike...........
Since you are so confident Obama is going to win why don't you put up 1000 dollars of your own money and I will find 10 people that don't think he's going to win here on BC to put up 100 each in a friendly little wager......
It will be the easiest grand you ever made right Mike.........
[Personal attack deleted by Comments Editor.
Arch, you have been making real progress with your comments recently. You have even been funny. If you make another insulting remark like that I have just deleted, I am going to delete all future comments from you until I get bored of doing so. I don't bore easily... Your choice.]
5 - Arch Conservative
Arch, you have been making real progress with your comments recently. You have even been funny. If you make another insulting remark like that I have just deleted, I am going to delete all future comments from you until I get bored of doing so. I don't bore easily... Your choice.]
Well it would be a hell of a lot easier for me to "play nice" if you could keep the paid Obama campaign staffers from writing articles on Blogcritics.
6 - Christopher Rose
Arch, as you have been around this site for a long time now I would hope you would be aware that it is very easy for anyone, even you, to write for Blogcritics.
Therefore, if playing nice is beyond you, you have the choice of either signing up and writing your own articles or simply finding another site more in tune with your own views...
7 - Dave Nalle
Karen, I'm curious what you base your comments about my personal beliefs on, given that I said nothing about any of those issues in my comment on this thread.
I can only conclude that you believe that anyone who opposes Obama must do so because they are some sort of elitist warmaking monster.
Think again. There are many of us who oppose Obama because we sincerely believe that the policies which he advocates will make life worse for every man woman and child of every economic status in America. And we don't hold these beliefs at random, but based on Obama's statements and intentions.
Dave
8 - MsAnna
Obama,
Please end your ties to the Council on Foreign Relations. The Federal Reserve and Federal Taxes are unconstitutional. You've studied the Constitution. Why did you vote for FISA. Your agenda seems to make the American people more interdependent and not independent.
---------------------------------------------
Obama is not Anti-War. He says Iraq is the Wrong War. However, Iran may be the right war, since he believes Iran is a threat. He says Afghanistan is the right War.
We are in big trouble, if you all don't wake up.
9 - Al Barger
Brother Green sez: Because when a man who has achieved as much respect as Obama has can be subjected to the putrid processes of politics without the entire nation rising up to call a stop to it, that calls into question the character of an entire country.
Abso-friggin-lutely! It is utterly unconscionable that the nation would sit back and let evil John McCain run a political campaign against The One. But don't you worry, Obama's going to step on him just like they're stepping on the evil right wing fanatics at WGN and the evil right wing hitman smear merchant character assassin racist white lying liar Stanley Kurtz.
All this campaigning is just an excuse to to try to take what is rightfully His, when obviously the only just and proper thing would be to skip the election nonsense and just
crowninaugarate President Obama immediately, with the fierce urgency of now.10 - Dave Nalle
Al, that's some serious anti-constitutional intimidation. You ought to write an article on it.
Dave
11 - Mike Green
Thanks for the comments everyone. But let me be clear. I congratulate Obama on making history despite the odds in America to do so. Nevertheless, I do not expect that he will be the next president.
It's one thing to garner support among the masses and quite another to navigate the corrupt political process that we cynically consider democratic. It is anything but.
John McCain is a man who, despite his quarter-century in the Congress, has little to show for it. Obama hasn't wasted his time as the people's representative. He has made ardent strides. However one might lean politically, it isn't difficult to recognize that Obama knows what resonates with the people ... and McCain simply plays party politics.
And if we take a careful look at our Constitution, it is written witht he idea that the representatives in Congress represent the people's interest, not the political party or the agenda of the executive branch. McCain hasn't remembered that in all his years in Congress. Now he's getting a lesson from a newcomer.
Of course, Obama isn't yet hip to how the political games are played in Washington. But he will receive a rude awakening when his campaign is sabotaged by the process that has little respect for what the people want if it differs with the agenda of the two parties.
So, I simply watch to see how the people will react when a corrupt and controlled "democratic" process undermines and overthrows a legitimate bid for the White House, and the one who the people have chosen will in the end be back in the Senate wondering what the heck happened.
And for the record, I don't think McCain will inherit the seat in the Oval Office either. Now, that doesn't make much sense now. After all, there are only two choices, right? Well, we'll see.
12 - Ruvy
Mike,
This is one of the few articles looking at this race that I can agree with completely. For my own reasons, which I'll not repeat here, I support Obama. But in looking at the whole picture, you and I agree completely on what the future holds for your country. And as you hint darkly - it is nothing good....
I too, cannot foresee Obama as being seated as president.
It will be a long way from now to November 2008, and from November 2008 to January 2009.
In the meantime, this should be a fun race to watch.
But my eye will really be elsewhere.
Nice article, Mike.
13 - Dr Dreadful
Ruvy, I have one major objection to your repeated and continued insistence that the world (or at least the one we know) is about to end. It's a nice world and I haven't finished using it. Would God really be that rude?
14 - Ruvy
Would G-d really be that rude?
Yup! Go back and read the Book of Sh'mot/Exodus. "Rude" is not quite the word that Egyptians would have used to describe G-d. And he sure as heck ended the world the Egyptians knew and loved.
15 - Dr Dreadful
Sadly, no lexicon of ancient Egyptian swear words has come down to us, so we can't know for sure what they might have called him.
However, a visit to any English (or better still, Scottish) Premier League soccer game would give you a fairly good idea of the general timbre!
I won't get into the (at best) tenuous historicity of the Exodus account with you, other than to observe that the Egyptian civilization the Greeks and Romans knew, while some way past its former greatness, was still stable and going about life pretty much the same way it had for generations.
16 - ALOIS PFISTER
ITS NINE O CLOCK HERE IN MEXICO, DATE 4 OF NOVEMBER. I COMGRATULATE OBAMA. HE WON. HOPE HE HELPS MEXICO.... THATS ALL. CONGRATS BUDDY!
17 - Clavos
¿Ayudar a Mexico? Ni siquiera ayudará a los EEUU, Alois.