A Window, A Light...

I'm surprisingly optimistic about our political situation, writ large. These last eight years have done a lot to disenfrancise me, and frankly, I'm not sure how I'd react to an '08 McCain victory. If anything, that's a win that would conceed to the most cynical and base political instincts, and that's something that is very tempting to a lot of people to do. I think at this point, it's almost a vote for D&D Evil, not because McCain is an evil man, but because there comes a point where the primary rational to do bad things is because of an idea that it's the way the world works, and you act selfishly and violently because acting optimistically and altruistically is a ticket to getting hurt again.

Obama is a good candidate. He's better than Clinton, who I would have been happy with if she were the candidate running. I'm glad she's not for a few reasons, maybe the least of which being that I think the cycle of Clintons and Bushes in the White House probably needs to end here. But, you know. I saw the Obama speech last night at the retirement home. It was just a young, white kid and an old black man drinking Cokes at an empty bar watching this man, Barack Obama, on the television giving his acceptance speech on the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I Have a Dream" speech. It felt monumental. And Obama's speech wasn't just excellent rhetoric, it was a terrific example of good politics. The media and the Republicans have been hitting him on a couple of different levels, including how he seems to lack fire or passion for government. I think Obama really dealt a blow to every Republican talking point, but on a less cynical level, he's an inspiring speaker. I'm not just going to vote for him, I want to. That's something I didn't feel about Kerry, and even though I'm enthusiastic about Gore now, he wasn't a captiviating candidate at the time. I was voting for them because the alternative clearly seemed worse to me.

There's speculation that McCain is going to ask Palin to run as his Veep. duc_de_duras 's e-mail list message seems to confirm it. I think that Palin is only a good choice on some levels, but I think that she'll hurt his campaign overall. It damages McCain's talking point regarding Obama's lack of experience, it seems like a cynical grab at women voters whos issues are poorly represented by Palin's political beliefs (so you can count out disenfrancised Clinton voters), and his 'maverick' cred is only going to be bolstered for a short time, because I think a female VP is substantially less critical than a women Presidential candidate is. I don't agree with duc de duras that she negates Obama talking points. McCain is not, no matter how many times he drops it out there, the change candidate, and Palin is not a candidate that will make people think that change is coming.

She's a cynical choice that hopes to capture Democratic votes while being afraid to lose parts of his evangelical base. All she brings to the ticket is being a women, which I think the media will pick up on. It doesn't help that she may seem to be attached to already-existing issues regarding Alaskan corruption.

EDIT/Addition: I'm not the only one who feels this way, re: Palin.