Reply #105: "As if he *is* hope itself." Yes, that's it exactly.

[Mark Twain Girl]

The whole "why do you hate inspiration?" "What's wrong with hope?" "oh that's right, you want us to be cynical and bitter!" "why are you so threatened by the movement, you must be an angry old thing" really bothers me. It suggests that if you don't care for one Senator's candidacy, you hate hope. You hate to be inspired. You get called bitter and old, *simply because you are not inspired by the object of their admiration.* It's as if your lack of inspiration is offensive, unacceptable. As if you can't possibly have hope or inspiration unless Barack Obama grants it to you. As if no hopeful vision of the future of this country ever could be imagined, if it doesn't revolve around Obama.

I've tried to keep quiet about this, and really, until very recently, I assumed I was the only one who felt this way. But you put into words something I've been processing for some time now.