Hope, Squared

January 27, 2008

Watching last night's speeches from the leading Democratic candidates for president, something struck me: we are witnessing not just a generational gap or a race gap or an "experience" gap. We are witnessing an honor gap.

Barack Obama stood in front of his supporters in South Carolina, and graciously thanked them for giving him a first-place finish. He spoke in lofty tones about bringing the country together, across all spectrums of race, gender, economic status, and religion. He spoke about overcoming the politics of old, and moving America toward the better angels of our nature. He refuses to take "no" for an answer, infusing his message with the kind of positive energy on which America was built. His campaign slogan is more than a slogan; it's the American anthem: "Yes, We Can!"

Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, stood in Tennessee and eked out a barely audible "congratulations to Senator Obama" before heaping praise on the school marching band that was playing her campaign gig. There was no authentic graciousness and no dignified remarks.

There was no class. There was no honor.

Obama's rhetoric is as wispy and transparent and unsubstantial as cotton candy. And for now, at least, it doesn't matter, because he's tapped into something else entirely. He's hooked into that panging desire for hope that Americans so worship; that idea of wishful thinking to which we are all so addicted. It's a quintessentially American vibe, and Obama's found it.

What is really driving the Clintons crazy is the fact that Obama is doing Bill's act from 1992. During that campaign, Bill tapped into that "hope" vibe and exploited it like no candidate since Reagan in 1980. This year, Obama is doing the act----but for him, it's more than an act. He embodies it. He breathes it. He believes it.

Hillary couldn't pull off the "hope" thing even if she believed it (which she doesn't). So, she's out there trying to attack Obama for being a "hopemonger." Pathetic, coming from a woman (and her husband) who won their first co-presidency on a campaign of Hope, Squared.

Her lack of graciousness is, of course, who she is. But it's also borne of a frustration that Obama "stole" the Clinton "hope" routine and he's doing it better than they are.

They are flailing, losing the Kennedy endorsements, getting raked over the coals by the elite press, and watching their biggest constituency---blacks---slip away.

Can't you just hear her screaming at Bill over the unfairness of it all?

Obama is an honorable man. The Clintons are not honorable people. Obama is the 21st century's man from Hope. And of all people, Bill and Hill ought to know that in America, there is no such thing as too much hope.

Comments

[deconcoder]

Totally agree. What is going on out there? It seems like the conservative wonks were the only ones who got the significance of a. this BLOWOUT win, and b. the drastically different figures each cut in the wake of it. Hillary's speech went on and on. Her cherry-picked gallery looked lobotomized and drowning in boredom.

Just watched the McLaughlin Group. Pat needs to put the cap back on the model glue. Clinton won?? All the other analysts say he got killed and is mainly responsible for the drubbing his betrothed took.

You are so right in your last joking comment about her wailing about the unfairness. Last week when she started up that hurdy-gurdy rattletrap about how hers and hubby's comments were unfairly removed from their context, it was insane. She can't see past that one way world view she's had for nigh onto 2 decades now.

You are unaccountably adorable for someone who works for Fox. Breath of fresh air on MG.

[SteveOk]

The thing with the Clinton's is the "Hope" gig is just a schtick they peddle, while Obama actually believes in hope. You see this in her ads, which unfortunately I am beginning to see as part of Super Tuesday. Her ads basically are a laundry list of candy she is willing to pay out in order to buy votes. That is the essence of her campaign, no vision, just stealing from the rich and redistributing the money in a strategic way to buy votes. It's old time boss politics. It's something Big Al Capone did to control Chicago. It's the politics of the La Cosa Nostra. Divide and conquer. They learned their politics from the single political Party state of Arkansas where they ruled like a King and Queen of their own fiefdom.

[Jack Flynn]

Monica,
Hillary Clinton has more "graciousness" in her little toe than you have in your entire being.
You've got a "mother" problem lady and if you ever expect to grow up, you had better attend to it.

[FK]

The pundits seem to anxious to announce that Clinton is finished, yet she keeps coming back. Let's see what happens on Super Tuesday when the decision will really be made.

I think all the primaries should be on one day. This piecemeal approach just leads to absurd speculation.

[FK]

I, of course, meant "TOO anxious".

[Phil]

Bad news for Obama. Ted Kennedy (D- Chappaquiddick) is going to endorse him, which could alientate large blocks of sane voters.

[Ree]

The Clintons "Bamboozled" alot of folks. It looks like now that the Hispanics, out number African Americans, as largest minority. The Clintons will pander to them. It is transparent, Power, at any cost. It is all about special interest groups, carving up the pie, it isn't about Americans as a whole.

[FK]

I'm more offended by politicians pandering to corporate interests than politicians pandering to minority groups. The corporations are screwing us left and right, especially in connection with healthcare insurance.

Minority groups are disprportionately poor and disadvantaged, and should seek to have a voice in the political system. Perhaps they now have the numbers to ensure that their voice is heard, as opposed to in past years when it was safe to ignore them. That makes sense to me.

Let's not forget: Hispanic Americans and African Americans are AMERICANS.

I already hear your answer. But many of them are illegal immigrants! As much as you all hate illegal immigrants, these are people who want to be in the country, and most are willing to work to stay here, or are you telling me I'm misinterpreting the huge line of people waiting for work under the bridges I pass in my car?

Instead of all the clamoring I hear from you all about how they should be locked up or thrown out, perhaps it would make more sense to inform them how they can become legal immigrants. It might cost less to give them forms and show them how to fill them out than to fill up our prisons and/or truck them to the border.

[SteveOk]

Fred, we don't "hate" illegal aliens we just want our border laws enforced, what's wrong with that? Why should we have open borders and be flooded with illegals who we have to pay their education, healthcare, and anything else Hillary thinks of. In addition to that, in a time of worldwide terrorism it is pretty risky to have open borders.

"Corporate Interests" should not have anymore influence in Washington than anyone else, but it is the free market economy along with reduce regulations and reduced taxes that will allow this economy to grow. It is growth in the private free market economy that produces jobs for everyone. For politicians to make oil companies, insurance companies, and banks the enemy doesn't help anyone. Those calling for higher taxes and more regulation are anti-growth and pro-stagnation.

[FK]

The free market doesn't work for a lot of people. Just go through the "bad part" of any city.

You all seem more offended by illegal immigrants, who I see as unfortunate people who think they can have a better life here and often don't even know how to become legal. I am more offended by the corporations who screw my family and me every day, who have access to the politicians through money and nice perks, and who, if confronted with the damage they are doing to regular Americans, would probably say that it's a free market and they are creating jobs.

What you are laying out is the typical Republican line, and it's crap. Just an example of why I never vote Republican. (That and the invasion of a sovereign nation justified by lies, the failure to effectively respond to environmental disasters at home, the curtailing of citizens' rights, the focus on religion to the exclusion of science, and oh so many other reasons!)

[SteveOk]

Fred, I submit the most democratic way to distribute capital, determine your income, and determine the cost of healthcare is through the free market. It is much more democratic than having a bureaucrat in Washington DC make those decisions.

Hillary wants to take the profits of oil companies, give them to a bureaucracy that she appoints, and redistribute them as she sees fit. You call that democracy? Do you mind if that committee also determines how much income you receive a year.

She wants us to have universal healthcare, but if it is the government that determines the quality and cost of your healthcare it may also be the government that says you are too old to have cancer surgery because you are going to die in a few years anyway. Do want a bureaucrat telling you what type of healthcare you can receive and setting the cost and quality? They type of health care you would eventually receive is the type Terry Schiavo got, pull the plug.

[FK]

The horror story you tell sounds like what the insurance companies do now. I don't trust corporations with a profit motive (maximize profits, cut costs) to determine my health needs.

BTW -- If I was in Terri Schiavo's condition, I would have wanted the plug pulled, and, according to those who knew her, that is what she would have wanted as well. Moreover, the doctors who actually examined her said that she would never be conscious again. The problem with that situation was that politicians and religious nuts interfered in a matter that was none of their business. But what do I expect from George W. Bush's brother?

[Jack Flynn]

The war criminal, George W. Bush gave his last State of the Union address last night. He deserves the same fate as Saddham, but due to an accident of birth he will escape that well deserved fate. We will not witness his cowardly screams as the noose tightens around his throat, but we will not forget his crimes against humanity.
And you reactionary jerks are afraid of Hillary?
Wise up, sheep.

[FK]

I didn't watch him. I didn't even turn on the TV last night. I have better things to do than see the Village Idiot's last big performance.

[charlie]

Monica,

Good of you to give Obama his due, but we must not forget his ideological base.
Apart from character traits, he and Hillary are birds of a feather.

When the primaries are over, whoever the nominee is, they'll be joining ranks to defeat the common enemy--Conservative Republicans!!

[FK]

Conservative Republicans should be defeated. You've had a good 7 years of destroying this country.

[charlie]

O yeah! what about the damage you libs have been doing for the past forty years with your socialist and unrealistic 'utopian' dreams. Bloody termites all of you!

[Jack Flynn]

Mind your logic Charlie boy.

Major premise: Termites can't vote.
Minor premise: We can vote.
Conclusion: Therefore we are not termites.

[charlie]

Not surprised that you and your ilk deny that you're synonymous with termites, and other vermin, as well.

FYI, they're hordes of bipedded termites out there--eating away at traditional values, and the foundation of the nation in general.

[FK]

The conservative line about "traditional values" gets tiresome. Whose traditions? Whose values? And do traditional values include telling lies to get the country to invade a sovereign nation that did not attack us?

And hasn't your President Village Idiot done a great job supporting the "foundation of the nation in general"?