Obama's major role as a vp candidate, I think, would be to encourage
Black and young supporters to make it to the polls. It's difficult to
be messianic from the second slot. As always, it's the top of the
ticket that makes the difference. After Clinton and McCain finished
agreeing about the three or four non-Republican positions McCain
holds it would be pretty much the usual slugfest about the war, the
economy, healthcare, with the underlying mostly unacknowledged gender
issue consuming a lot of the oxygen. McCain really has only one issue
to run on. Women vote in larger percentages than men, and Hillary
would get the entire antiwar vote. The likeability issue would of
course be in play, but it's difficult to imagine that McCain would
continue to succeed as the loveable, unpredictable younger brother as
much as he has.
I poet I greatly admire as both a writer and a person said on another
list that she's voting for Obama because he makes her feel good--all
that hope, all that unity. Messianism is a tricky business, and
pretty neutral: the worst and some of the best politicians have
espoused it. Hitler, according to Germans I've spoken to with
impeccable and hard-earned antifascist credentials, was an amazing,
inspiring speaker. One gets some sense of this from Triumph of the
Will, which is so effective that I've found myself tearing up when
watching it, and hating that I was doing so. I'm not saying that
Obama is Hitler. He may even be a very nice man with good intentions,
though I doubt those good intentions are what leads him to see
himself as the necessary man of the hour--blind ambition and
megalomania, the usual currency of presidential politics, is a safer
assumption. But the manipulation is similar. Buttons are pushed, we
suddenly feel part of a greater movement, our egos \melded with the
crowd's--we become part of the messianic cause, larger and better
than ourselves. My experience has been that one wakes up eventually
with a very bad hangover. Kennedy, who was more fun (all those
women), died before we found ourselves hovering around the toilet
bowl. Inspiring to some (never to me--I would have preferred
Stevenson), he gave us the Bay of Pigs and the Vietnam War and little else.
I guess I don't like being manipulated. One can argue that all
politicians do so, that Hillary was faking the emotional moment, but
in general she has refused to do so, talking nuts and bolts and
longterm goals instead. There's an honesty in that. And she'll get us
universal health care if anyone can.
Health care is a major issue in more ways than the obvious. Whenever
I travel in countries where it exists I'm astonished by the
difference in the tone of daily life, the lower stress-level, the
sense of not being trapped by the need to maintain membership in this
or that employer-generated plan. Want freedom? That's a place to start.
OK, I've gone on too long. Obama could help a Clinton ticket just as
effectively by campaigning for her as by campaigning with her.
Mark
At 05:52 AM 2/7/2008, you wrote:
>If a Clinton/Obama ticket materializes, what result would you predict
>against McCain/Whoever?
>
>Barry
>
>
>On Wed, 6 Feb 2008 15:09:06 -0500, Mark Weiss <[log in to unmask]>
>wrote:
>
> >I can't imagine either ticket, though I think Clinton/Obama would win
> >extra votes. Obama is surely aware that whatever committments Clinton
> >made upfront would be nonbinding. He would be better served to spend
> >the next eight years becoming a first-rate, courageous senator,
> >learning something perhaps from Ted Kennedy..
> >
> >Mark
> >
> >At 02:17 PM 2/6/2008, you wrote:
> >>These divisions may well be resolved by a Clinton-Obama ticket. And this
> >>only if Clinton (& Clinton) make a deal that gives Obama power and
> >>experience.
> >>
> >>I can't imagine an Obama-Clinton ticket, unless she is far more altruistic
> >>than any politician is allowed to be.
> >>
> >>On 2/6/08, Mark Weiss <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >> >
> >> > This may be inappropriate for a poetry list, but I've got to share it
> >> > with someone. I just stopped off to pick up lunch at the Dominican
> >> > place downstairs. On the counter were two tabloids, the Daily News,
> >> > which had a picture of the Giants homecoming, and El Diario, whose
> >> > headline screamed "Fuerza Latina!" There's been a lot of writing
> >> > about the mutual hostility of Black and Latino voters and its effect
> >> > on primary votes, but I think there's something more at play: if
> >> > Latinos go for Obama they're junior partners in his coalition. If
> >> > they go for Hillary they play a major role in getting her
> >> > elected--it's not just prejudice, or affection for Bill, but a sense
> >> > of Latin power, as the gheadline says--that Latins will have chosen
> >> > the president. And that, in America's (and almost anywhere else's)
> >> > divisive politics, will give them a lot of clout.
> >> >
> >> > So I thought beyond this insight. Obama's campaign of generalized
> >> > hope appeals overwhelmingly to Blacks, obviously, but also to
> >> > upper-income, better-educated Whites, and students in training to
> >> > become such, especially males. This is the least-vulnerable group in
> >> > US society, and the best able to sustain a gamble. If Obama's health
> >> > care plan fails, for instance, or fails to include 25 million people
> >> > they don't socialize with, it barely affects them. Voting for an
> >> > uplifting message entails little risk.
> >> >
> >> > That group, incidentally, tracks as more liberal than Clinton's
> >> > supporters, although she is a shade to Obama's left
> >> >
> >> > Clinton's support comes almost entirely from those most vulnerable or
> >> > most dissatisfied with the social constraints they perceive as placed
> >> > upon them: the lower-income, less-educated, hispanic, elderly,
> >> > female. All of these groups see themselves as outsiders
> >> >
> >> > So here's Obama's problem: he somehow has to gain the trust of
> >> > Hillary's voters, who appear to be absolutely certain that anything
> >> > they get will come out of the nasty business of hardball, divisive
> >> > politics. If he loses to Hillary, some Black voters may or may not
> >> > stay home in the general election, but the White Obama constituency
> >> > will almost certainly fall in line. If Obama wins, he'll lose some of
> >> > Hillary's constituency to McCain, who's well-liked by Hispanics and
> >> > can speak the language of the elderly, and a great many of the
> >> > lower-income will stay home, as they often do.
> >> >
> >> > Ironically, Hillary's despicable Iraq Resolution vote would probably
> >> > neutralize some of McCain's appeal, although it's become increasingly
> >> > clear that she'd get us out of Iraq no more slowly, and no faster,
> >> > than Obama would.
> >> >
> >> > Mark
> >> >
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>--
> >>
> >>
> >>~ SB | http://www.sbpoet.com | =^..^=
> >=========================================================================
|
