McCain may be a war hero, but he’s also a has-been old pol. He became the Republican nominee because he was the least embarrassing candidate in an embarrassing field of losers. Did you see his speech the last night of the Democratic primary race? He looked like a Neanderthal man auditioning for the role of a human – the village idiot who’d just had some coaching. His speech coach had obviously told him, “Hey, why don’t you try to smile more?” so after every sentence, McCain would come up with this doddering idiot grin. The broadcast mercifully cut away from him – I guess they were afraid the old dodderer would start drooling at any moment. Is this all the GOP can come up with? My prediction: half the Republicans will go to the polls to vote for Obama, and the other half will stay home, too embarrassed to vote. Barack will knock McCain over with a few flicks of one finger. Put them side by side and it’s plain to see: on one side the sorry past, on the other the hopeful future.
Barack has something in spades that McCain sorely lacks: the charisma of a JFK. Maybe more important: Barack Obama is the coolest cat in American life since Duke Ellington. His campaign is not only competent, it’s classy. No nasty Karl Roves or crazy James Carvilles in his organization. He’s got that thing Hemingway went on about: “grace under pressure.” No wonder they call him No Drama Obama. He’s Mr. Cool incarnate. Just look at how he demonstrated flipping the crap off his shoulders as the way to handle attacks.
In fact, Barack Obama is a new kind of man in political life. He’s not some butch swaggering hysterical macho bully-boy posturer like Bush or Cheney or Clinton or McCain. He’s a modern, feminized man: a metrosexual of grace and nuance and subtlety and elegance. He’s a faun, not a bull. He doesn’t have to parade his steel in a stiff neck and a grim mouth. He doesn’t snarl. He can afford to keep his steel hidden, because it’s in his bones, not in his biceps. Just compare the way George Bush and Barack Obama walk. Bush walks like a gorilla. Barack walks like a gazelle. Obama will bring a new example of what it is to be a man to the White House and the world.
Having read his memoir, having heard his speeches, and having watched how he’s handled the Clinton machine, I will be slightly disappointed if Barack turns out to be a good president but not a great one. He’s got all the makings – more so than any president since Roosevelt, our last great president.
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.