Obama by Kenneth Matinale March 10, 2008

I had intended to vote for former Senator John Edwards in the February 5 New York presidential primary but Edwards dropped out before then. I was not nuts about the Edwards message about saving unsavable jobs but I figured that he was most likely to stand up to corporate interests, for the weak against the powerful. Obama was my second choice, Hillary last. She annoyed me a lot sooner than Obama did. Obviously, I have not drunk the Obama Kool-Aid. I was calling Obama the Manchurian Candidate long before it was mentioned in the New York Times. In the immortal words of Maxwell Smart: "There was a book?" Apparently there was a novel by Richard Condon and then a play by John Lahr then the two movies: 1962 and 2004. The plot changes a bit but the basic idea is that bad guys capture and brainwash an American soldier, turn him into an assassin with his mother as his handler for the purpose of making the mother's husband/soldier's step father (1962) or the soldier assassin himself (2004) president of the United States to be controlled by outside forces: Chinese communists (1962), an evil corporation: Manchurian Global (2004). Of course, McCain and Hillary could also be Manchurian Candidates. McCain was a prisoner of war for five years. That's got to mess with your brain. And Hillary could be multiple characters all rolled into one: the mother and candidate. In her case, she may have done the mother thing as Bill's wife. How creepy is that? My basic concern about Obama: who is this guy? He just showed up and he wants to be in charge. He grew up where? Indonesia? I am almost finished his memoir, "Dreams from My Father". I couldn't wait for him to get out of Chicago and get to Kenya. At least he plays basketball. We need big, fundamental change. Hillary is the least likely to deliver anything but incrementalism ... like Bill. Even McCain is more likely to shake things up. And why is she yelling so much? Reagan didn't yell. He was the first politician I noticed delivering a public speech in a normal tone of voice. McCain doesn't yell either, nor the incumbent Bush. Raising one's voice in a controlled way can be very effective in a public speech but it is not required since Reagan did away with it. Obama does it well with the proper timber in his voice. Kennedy did it very well. Others have raised their voices a moderate level: Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter (not well), Bush the elder, Bill Clinton (not bad but a ragged voice). Obama is a risk. His experience is so limited. But he is such a quick learner. I am concerned that he is a bit of an intellectual dilettante. If he is not elected president I could see him dropping out. I do not see him slogging through Senate minutia waiting for another opportunity in four or eight years. But such opportunities do not come often and he is right to seize his. We have seen potentially great presidents do their Hamlet routine and not take the risk: Mario Cuomo and Colin Powell. Obama has been a weasel like the others. He favors the right to bear arms. He attacked NAFTA because Hillary suddenly did it to win the Ohio primary; those Ohioans went against their own interests in 2004 because Bush had them lathered up about homosexual marriage. Obama makes me cringe when he discusses people crossing our borders illegally by stating we would have to have all our law enforcement people stop enforcing any other laws in order to apprehend those breaking into America. Barack, come on, how dishonest is that? Part of the process is to deal with the process. We want a president who can handle the rough stuff. Obama needs to do that without being a weasel and without being dishonest. He needs to be presidential. Obama. His name would send a message to the third world. His face would send a message to everyone and might finally end the racial tension in America. What other country has come this far where we are close to electing a person with a black African father? Even though Obama is not the descendant of African-Amercan slaves he could free their children from a heritage of bondage and second class citizenship. Obama being Obama sends a message of hope, reconciliation and a new direction for our great country. We need someone to say: "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country". We need someone to pull the sword from the stone. I voted for Barack Obama in the 2008 New York presidential primary. I contributed to his campaign.