Now what?
Yes, of course I’m delighted, tickled, heartened, hopeful, proud, and tired from staying up until well past the speech, because I didn’t want it to end. But as so many others have said already this morning, this is only a beginning, and we are not saved by a long shot.
Actually, a “long shot” kept creeping into thinking as I watched Obama last night on that open stage, in front of all those people. It will take only one deranged or evil asshole to steal our hope, just as it did when Bobby Kennedy was killed, and the others before him. I don’t wish it in the least, and I wasn’t so much reasoning, or mulling possible outcomes, as I was intruded upon. Am I alone in this?
I had been saying since Labor Day that I didn’t think it would be close, and to my thinking, I was both right and wrong. In the Electoral College, it was a landslide, no doubt. But in the popular vote, Obama barely exceeded half, and I would caution those who talk of landslide without acknowledging that fact. I do think he has the opportunity for a quick start, but the split in America has not gone away.
When McCain’s people say they don’t know what they would have done differently, I take their point. To me, the Palin choice was poison — it may have excited the believers, but it repelled others who might have been persuaded. Alternatively, they could have chosen Hutchison, or Lieberman, or Ridge, which would have avoided the poison but alienated the religious fundamentalists. If there was a choice who would have satisfied the fundamentalists and stood up to scrutiny from the rest of us, I don’t know. (I haven’t spent much time noodling on McCain’s path to the White House.) But it may be that this was a direct result of deal with the devil-haters.
Colin McEnroe, an acquaintance in Connecticut blogs today that he thinks both McCain and Lieberman may resign, though for different reasons. He’s a bright thinker and great writer, and that alone is enough for me to give his ideas credence. I would be surprised if either did, even with this pundit’s heads up. I am, however, looking forward to Lieberman’s comeuppance — I can’t imagine he’ll find much support in the Democratic caucus, and I’ll be disappointed if some unseen-by-me practicality requires his continued toleration.
I am impressed by the outpouring of emotion — in Grant Park, on Pennsylvania Avenue, and around the world. But I have to say that my appreciation of the history angle is more respected than felt. Yes, it is important for a non-white to have been elected, and I would take away nothing from it. My only point that I’m far too caught up in what the multiple blunders of the past 8 years have cost us — in lives, money, political capital, and credibility — and all the fixing now needed, to spend too much time on symbolism.
If Obama turns out to be more Jimmy Carter than FDR, we’ll merely be holding our cherished symbol in deeper shit than we had when we acquired it. I don’t say he will, and both hope and expect that he won’t. But I’ve sort of been here before.
Eighteen months before Carter was elected, when he was every bit as popular — and unkown — as fellow candidates Terry Sanford, Fred Harris, and Lloyd Bentsen, I predicted that Carter would be elected. (No, really, I have witnesses. I was 18 and took my call as evidence of extreme prescience, if not clairvoyance.) Not only have I been saying that it would be a landslide for Obama since Labor Day, but I first wrote about him last July, in a post I began by saying he’d been “on my radar for about a year.” (What I realize now is that neither case was about me at all — it was what the candidates had, and what could be seen — was eventually seen — by a majority of voters.)
My point in reliving past glory is that when Carter was elected, I doubled down on my supposed brilliance and opined that by the time he was done, we would want to put Carter on Rushmore. We all know how that worked out.
November 11th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Mike, after reading your blog, I thought you might be interested in reading this:
FROM THE EDITORS
THE CHEER HEARD ROUND THE WORLD
By Becky Sun , Editor, Global View
After Barack Obama decisively won the presidency last week, it wasn’t only his domestic supporters who felt palpable excitement. Not only did the world follow this election as if it were their own, but a majority would have voted for Obama if given the chance. A CTV/Global and Mail poll showed that Canadians preferred Obama over their own prime minister, Stephan Harper (CTV.ca 6.29.08). In France, Obama would have trounced McCain 9:1 (Independent 11.5.08).
Iconoculture Cultural Fluents report that their countries are not only enthusiastic and a little envious, but also relieved that this superpower elected someone they feel the world can work with. They pepper their comments with phrases like “a more caring form of capitalism,” “better and fresher America” and “president the world was waiting for.” They are also amazed that America voted for a member of the minority, which they can’t imagine happening yet for, say, Uighurs in China, les Berbères in France or black youth in the U.K.
Regardless of one’s political leaning, marketers should know that the cool and collected president-elect adds a glow to Brand America. Cultural Fluent Paula Alvarado says it best: “In the local mindset, Bush represented all that’s wrong about the U.S., and that affected American products. There is going to be a 180-degree turnaround in how Argentineans perceive the American brand.”