A great deal of damage all round. The Bush-Cheney CEO cowboys have lived out their bad characters on our time and dime to the full.
OK, after two disappointing characters, Bush and Clinton, what about our next president?
Let me say one thing right off the bat about Barack Obama. He appears to have more character in a single digit of his pinkie than Bill Clinton has in his celebrated penis or George Bush in his celebrated gut.
So, yes, I expect a lot more from an Obama presidency than we got from Clinton or Bush. After all, I’ve read Barack’s memoir, “Dreams From My Father.” If you want to know Barack’s character, read it. You’re not going to get a more self-revelatory memoir written by any world leader ever. He wrote it long before he had any notion of being president. And he wrote it brilliantly all by himself (not like JFK’s “Profiles in Courage,” for which Kennedy got a Pulitzer although he didn’t write the book himself – those were the innocent days when you could hide your ghost writers).
From his book, it’s evident that Barack Obama is actually capable of deep and abiding self-examination, which is completely alien to Bush and perhaps struck Bill Clinton briefly in the midst of the Monica business, when Hillary must’ve given him earful after earful, and he probably managed a little look or two inside himself for a week or two.
As a politician, Obama shares the calculating intelligence of Bill Clinton and Bush, but he has something they lack: moral intelligence. Barack Obama pulls off a unique feat for a politician: he tries to be honest with himself and those around him. If the pastor Wright controversy proves anything, it is that Barack is an honest man. In his Pittsburgh race speech, instead of expediently throwing Wright under the bus, Barack honestly said he could no more denounce Wright than he could denounce black people or his sometimes racist white grandmother. And later, when Wright implied that Barack says what he says because it’s politically expedient and not what’s really in his heart, Barack dumped his former pastor for impugning his honesty. Honesty above expediency: that’s a very unique character trait in a politician. Barack revealed it again when he called McCain and Hillary’s gas tax holiday idea a gimmick, which is exactly what it was. A little thing like that can tell you a lot about a man or a woman’s character: McCain and Hillary are say-anything political panderers, and Barack is not.
Article comments
1 - Dave Nalle
Wow Adam, this one is so amazingly out of touch with reality it's like you're channelling messages from another universe.
Nice to see you're warming up to Bush, though.
Dave
2 - maria
this is a great article. I hope that more Americans allow themselves the opportunity to read through some of your insight. Well done!
3 - bliffle
Engrossing article with an interesting Point Of View. But a little long.
4 - Georgio
Adam ..It was a long article but I read it all and I agreed with most of it ..First of all I don't think you where fair to Hillary..after all she did get 18 million votes and she won the states that the Dems need to win in the general and O bama won states that we will not win in the general especialy the south..
I am from Chicago and have followed Obamas rise from the beginning..truth is he never would have even become the Democratic candidate to run for the ticket if his opponent who was 17 pts ahead of him didn't have a wife who went on TV and said he is a wife beater,,so Obama won the right to face the republican candidate who also was favored to win the election but can you believe it ..the repulican also had a scandle that did him in so one might say OBama became a Senator by pure luck..I would also say he beat Hillary with pure luck also because if the association he had with the reverend and others was known from the beginning he would not have gotten to first base .
I am a Democrate and will vote for him but I have serious problems with him ..In the beginning I liked him because of his message of hope and a new beginning that politics in Washington would change..But the longer the fight went on the more he sounded just like every other politician..
The black community backed him 94% and if that is not raceism in reverse than I have a bridge I want to sell to you..the GOP will exploit this because they will put doubts in minds of white voters because they are not worried about turning the blacks against them because they know they are not going to get thier votes anyway...
Adam I hope he can be the kind of President that will help this country but I see no chance at all unless Hillary is on the ticket and right now I don't see that happening.
5 - Baronius
Georgio, that's interesting because I can't see Obama winning with Clinton on the ticket. Second-guessing from Hillary, third-guessing from Bill, parallel organizations... it would be the worst thing for party unity. A party unifies under one leader, with no looking back.
Dave, I found the article interesting because it probably accurately reflects the views of people I disagree with. It's interesting to see facts (and opinions) used as building blocks to create something I'd never imagine. It doesn't make sense to me that someone could look at Obama and see coolness and character, but the truth is that some people do.
6 - Georgio
Baronius..the reason I say Hillary has to be on the ticket is because she won states that the Dems need to win ..Obama won states that the GOP will win in the general..any other VP that he picks could get him one or two states but this election will come down to Fl ,OH ,PA, Mich..Obama can't win these states without Hillary.
7 - Baronius
Georgio - I don't buy into this thinking that FL, OH, PA, and MI are wearing chastity belts that only Clinton can unlock. Clinton won two of those states because Obama didn't campaign in them. In Ohio, the GOP has made such fools of themselves that I can't imagine them voting for a Republican for a decade. That leaves Pennsylvania, the state of bitter gun-toting Bible-thumpers. They've got more problems with Obama than a running mate could solve.