2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Obama Campus Fervor Losing to Apathy as Students Sour on 2012 [View all]DFW
(54,365 posts)And we were looking for a charismatic magician.
Obama couldn't afford shout out too loudly that he was not a magician. He wasn't elected yet.
He wasn't going to get a chance to accomplish anything if McCain was in the White House and Palin was
in the headlines. So he did nothing to discourage the myth. I don't blame his campaign for that. I never expected
miracles anyway.
I see presidential campaigns more as damage control than anything else, cynical as that may be. I am concerned
with two things above all, really. One is foreign policy. I'm looking for a president who has a grasp on reality when
dealing with the leaders of Russia, China, Brazil, India, Mexico, Canada, the EU. Having our head of state grasp
the shoulders of the German Chancellor from behind on worldwide TV makes us all look like buffoons, as, indeed,
our last president did, and was. The other is the Supreme Court. Bush (i.e. Cheney) gave us Roberts and Alito.
They, in turn, gave us Citizens United, the teabagger House of Representatives. Obama gave us Sotomayor and
Kagan--just as smart as Roberts and Alito, but without the evilness of purpose or the allegiance to the money
of the party that nominated them.
None of the above seems spectacular, looks good on a 5 word banner, or sounds good in thirty seconds on Thom
Hartmann's show. But it's reality, and it's necessary stuff for our country to survive.
I was 21 once. Nixon was president. It was horrible. If I didn't give up then, I sure as hell am not giving up now.