My son, in his 20's, obsessed with politics, who volunteered for Hillary in her first NY campaign, but up until now was a political cynic, told me: "I've never gotten teary-eyed hearing a speech before, but with Obama, oh my God!" I'm old (68), a former professor of Political Science, and I get teary, too. And women in their fifties have been touched by him, as well, even though they so wanted to support Hillary, who is 50ish, and as they told me, "sounded and looked like me, a post-menopausal woman" with a list. Because Obama is neither fully black nor white (note: he chose to identify with African-Americans; he wasn't raised that way), he can appeal to whites, blacks, and now, as the campaign progresses, to Hispanics and Asians and as well, and the young and the old. He was brought up in Hawaii, after all, the most multi-racial society in America.
How would you like it if the US became a country with a progressive majority again, the way it had been during the New Deal, and with Kennedy, and LBJ, too, until Vietnam caught up with him? With Bill Clinton, we had a continuation of a conservative America. With Hillary, while the country is looking for a new direction, she doesn't have one, only a program (a good program). With Obama we could again become a progressive nation, and racial tensions might finally be healed; Americans could see how far we've strayed from America's promise; the wealthy would no longer rule; the anomaly of consistent progressive aspirations (as measured in preference polls) overruled by conservative politics would be replaced by a government being pushed into realizing them. Americans want a free, unafraid, optimistic nation in which no one is ignored, or written off as not counting because they are part of the other 49 percent, not one ruled by slicing and dicing special interests to piece together fifty percent plus one. That's what Obama's rhetoric about "unity" refers to.
I don't know if Obama can do this, but it's apparent that he intends to try. I think it's worth the attempt; that's why I voted for him. I hope to be able to vote for him again, in the general election.
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