A generation gap, with the young leading the way….a raft of new voters…..women crossing gender lines….
In a very, very white state—93 percent of the voters white, 4 percent black—they voted in droves for a black man.
They were tired of the bitterness, tired of the hatred, tired of the red state/blue state divisions, tired of the lies and accusations….and so they voted for a man who preached hope. Actually two men—one Democrat and one Republican—who promised healing.
Whatever happens from here on out (and a lot assuredly will), this has the weight of augury.
Obama had the chance to grab the moment with his speech, and he did it. He was brilliantly prepared and made a speech that was stunning:
“….They said this country was too divided, too disillusioned to ever come together over a common purpose. But on this January night, and in this defining moment in history…..you have done what the cynics said we couldn’t do….”“…we came together…..to stand up and say, we are one nation, one people…”
“We’ve proved that, in the face of impossible odds, people who love this country can change it.”You’ll be able to look back and say this was the moment when we tore down barriers that have divided us for too long….
America remembers what it means to hope. Hope is not blind optimism. It’s not ignoring the enormity of the task ahead…..”We are ready to believe again.”
I hope so. I really, really, really do. (There are times in life when my absurdly optimistic Pollyanna self stands up and starts cheering and won’t sit down when I tell her to. Tonight is one of those nights.)
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MISCELLANEOUS NOTE 1: I write this as I’m here in Bennington College…..where out of nearly 140 people at this fabulous MFA writing program that is taking place, few are talking about the Iowa election. I don’t get it.
MISCELLANEOUS NOTE 2: It’s 8 degrees below zero outside as I type, which is w-a-aaaay too cold for a California grrrllll.
I predict nothing over the long haul, but I’m in tears tonight for my sons , for my stepsons, and for my grandson.
Reg, I understand—on both counts. I’m having a Pollyanna moment, and I’m not ready to give it up.
Is it true that “America’s Mayor” Giuliani got a measly 4% of the Iowa vote ? I mean that’s less than half of 9.11% This is the second best news of the evening !!!! Iowa people are pretty goddam smart.
Paul at 10% and beating Rudy at an incredibly crappy 4% ? I LOVE THE MIDWEST.
Smartest commentary on the Obama win…before the win:
When the story is told on Thursday night, the narrative will be a remarkable one: Obama will cobble together western Iowa counties with ivory towered college towns and eastern cities within the shadow of his Illinois. What’s more, while he is running a tight race with U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton and former U.S. Sen. John Edwards with traditional voters, Obama will pull ahead with new people, not just the young, but the never-before caucus-goers. I see their faces in the crowds. They are the woman I went to high school with who stunned me by appearing, waving a Barack Obama sign, no less, at one of his events in Carroll. Surely, she must have an “American Idol” re-run to watch, I thought. No, she’s caucusing for Obama.
Here’s another reason Obama will do well in western Iowa (and win the whole thing): Democrats listen to their Republican friends and family. They know who has the best shot against the Republicans in a general election — an instinct a recent Zogby Poll bears out by showing Obama beating all GOP presidential candidates.
Don’t take it from me, though. Living in heavily Republican territory in Sac County, Marjie Sands, a nurse, joked that she doesn’t visit often about politics with her friends and colleagues. That said, when the matter does arise, she hears more negative comments from Republicans about Clinton than Obama.
“My husband’s a very staunch Republican,” Sands said.
And who does he dislike more?
“I think Clinton,” she said.
One very much underappreciated dynamic in this race is that among the leading Democratic contenders Obama is the Midwesterner. Hillary is New York slick and Edwards is a Southern-fried pol who delivered a speech so populist in tone Sunday that I suspected he might leave Carroll High School, cross the street and march with a torched mob on the more well-to-do Collison Addition of our town.
Yes, we are a largly white state, and sure, it goes without saying that when Barack Obama is on the television screen or behind the political podium we see a black man.
That is, after all, what he is.
But when you listen to Obama, the substance of thinking, the cadence of his reasoning, his unassuming acceptance of people, you hear a Midwesterner.
– Douglas Burns, Iowa Independent.
Here are the goods: Obama’s speech compete –
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/samgrahamfelsen/CxBX
Obama’s speech complete:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/samgrahamfelsen/CxBX
sorry – thought the first post didn’t go through
Very good stuff, reg, from Doug Burns, and thanks for the Obama speech link. Okay, it’s 2 am here, and I’m going to zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Hillary has to get out of the niche of being thought of as the candidate of “older women” and white hairs in general. When Bill got elected, it was as the hip, jazz-playing alternative to the other dull white guy — I don’t think she realized that her earnestness at being taken seriously as a woman translated into her being the dull white gal this time around. She needs more Chelsea’s generation, rock’in ‘n rollin’ at her rallies, less Golden Girls redux. Bill Edwards is only a few years younger, and he’s been around the block too, but with his pretty-boy looks manages to make himself seem more like a whole generation younger, like Obama.
But I don’t think she’s done by far — bet she’ll get this hint, and also, when it comes to New Hampshire and states where the homely homily playing on the candidate’s humble roots and connections to the common man (something Bill was good at) doesn’t totally trump knowledge, experience and perseverence, she’ll be back in her game.
The three smartest guys — Biden, Dodd and Richardson — got the lowest poll numbers, barely 1% each. (And Rudy got only 4% vs. higher numbers for the two affable guys who wear their religion on their sleeves.) So considering that, Hillary’s 29% wasn’t so bad. And if these three throw their weight behind her, their bases in their home states can really offset this initial loss. She’ll learn and bounce back, but this lesson in humility isn’t all bad. Americans do want someone who can bridge generations, color barriers and the polarized political parties which have plagued this country for some time — that’s what Obama represents, and the message Huckabee gave Craig Ferguson tonight, as well.
My understanding is that Richardson already “threw his weight” to Obama and that Biden’s people also had Obama as their second. I don’t know that this translates into official endorsements, but if Richardson and Biden really want those cabinet posts they seem to have been running for they probably have a better chance throwing in with Barack. That would be the perfect combination of “experienced” advisors and younger, more energized leadership. (No comment on the “3 smartest guys.” In my book the smartes guy is the one who actually is able to make it happen. Being boring isn’t necessarily a measure of how smart you are.) I’m also not sure where this stuff about Hillary’s “knowledge” comes from. She blew “knowledge” about Pakistan about as badly as Huckabee when she started running her mouth about Mushareff being on the ballot of the Pakistani election. A rookie error which is consistent with her being more a facade of “hard work” than substance when it comes to policy issues. Also, need we mention her utterly clueless vote on Iraq ? I mean Senator Bob Graham, a relatively conservative Southern Democrat, was calling that one because he actually read the NIEs and Hillary didn’t even bother to dig into them although they were available to her. About as impressive as her health care incompetence during Bill’s tenure. Knowledge ? Experience ? Perserverance ? This woman wouldn’t have a chance at the presidency if she wasn’t Bill’s wife. It’s really that simple. Do we need reruns of an administration that was merely okay (as compared to the current disastrous boondoggle ?) But, yeah – compared to Dodd’s numbers Hillary did pretty well. I’m about Hillary’s age (almost exact age as Bill – days apart) and I want my generation to give it up and move on to the next in national leadership. I’m sick of “us.” In fact, most of the people I spend my time with in both work and “play” are at least ten years younger. And the O campaign is full of younger folks who aren’t nearly as boring as my ’60s peers. Hillary embarrasses me – and as someone who was actually “there” during the civil rights movement and the early days of the anti-war movement before people went totally nuts, having a dork who campaigned for Goldwater A FULL YEAR AFTER THE MLK/RUSTIN/A.P.RANDOLPH MARCH ON WASHINGTON invoking the civil rights movement as having inspired her just annoys me. That speech she gave in Selma mimicking a black preacher – very badly – was a defining moment for me. A total phony. She was on the wrong damned side for way too long to be taken seriously as having been intelligently involved in the core civil rights issues when it really mattered. Lyndon Johnson “got it” before young Hillary did. I think it’s an oversimplification to call Hillary the candidate of “grey hairs” and “older women” – more accurately, she’s the candidate of the dullest among that breed.
With eight out of eleven posts from reg, it’s close to a filibuster.
O’bama is black?!! When? Where? I thought he was Irish.
I’m glad that Rodham-Clinton came in third, but her political machine is so ruthless and crooked, I still predict that she’ll be the next president.
I don’t care for Giuliani, but he has been campaigning in states for Super Tueday rather than focusing on Iowa, so you can’t draw conclusions on him from that outcome.
I too had a Pollyana moment despite myself.
There’s nothing “Pollyanna” about Obama’s win IMHO. And listening to his speech tells me he’s the guy who can move this country (just a little) like no one else, particularly the younger folks.
point taken!
When asked by reporters how it felt to be the frontrunner, Obama told the crowd in New Hampshire that it felt good – just like he thought it would when he told his kindergarden teacher!
Let me pull a Reg and make another post. I love it that the Ron Paul People – mad at FOX for excluding their boy from Sunday’s debate are doing something about it. First they started an online move to dump Newscorp stock (price down 3% on Thursday) and now are calling for a boycott of FOX advertisers.
The Huckabee contagion is spreading. Why, before you know it some Republicans will want to to represented by their party! The Nerve!
With all this talk about Hillary Clinton needing to appeal to a younger crowd and being hip. I would suggest to Hillary, that she learn to play the kazoo. Then she can be a guest on the Jay Leno show and play with the Tonight Show band. If I remember correctly Bill Clinton made an appearance on the Jay Leno show and played his saxophone with the band during his presidential campaign. Although Bill Clinton did NOT tell a phony baloney story about how his very poor single mama struggled to pay for his Sears $100.00 saxophone. I wonder if we need to factor in the Jay Leno “charming guest†factor, into the presidential qualifications.
It’s too early in the race to pick the winning horse yet.
Don’t know about the Leno factor but when I read that Obama did better than Hil among women I’ve got to think that there’s a Oprah factor!
Good idea about Hillary and the kazoo on Jay Leno — yup, when Bill played the sax there, it seemed “young” and revolutionary for a pol, but then, George and Barbara looked like everyone’s grandparents.
Except instead of a kazoo, I’d like to see her with a guitar or doin’ some country, singing “Stand By My Man,” — no, some Judds, maybe? If only she could look good in a short skirt and do a duet with Gwen Stefani… Even Huck boasts about his cool past in a rock band, and he’s about as Next-Gen as a kazoo. I stand corrected, tho: his worked-to-the-bone parents scrimped for a year to get his noisemaker at J C Penney’s, which is even more populist than Sears.
It’s a shame about Biden and Richardson. I heard Biden’s Iowa stump speech and he talked specifically about the issues (rather than generally about change & experience — although he did talk a bit about his own foreign policy experience, too). I was impressed.
Biden supporters were definitely instructed to go to the Obama camp if they weren’t viable, but I know some who went to Edwards … got a phone call from one during the caucus and you could hear the chanting and the energy for all the candidates. Many will disagree with me, but the caucuses are democracy at some of its most promising moments.
Also reported: In one Democratic caucus room meant for about 125 to show, 450 people showed up. Nearly half were indepdendents and Republicans who want changes both at home and abroad. No shame in letting that Pollyana moment linger, Celeste!