Now that I've endorsed Barack Obama, my many readers have flooded my inbox and comments with a lot of silly questions. I'm going to respond to some of those questions now, and in doing so, I will settle the issues for all time.

Is Obama really electable?
I could write about how I think it's critical the top of the Democratic ticket never have voted for the war in Iraq. I could talk about how I think that the pop-culture phenom of Obama -- the thing that so many use as an excuse to dismiss him -- is proof of his electability. Or I could talk about how "experience" in Washington, especially over the last eight years, is going to be an albatross around the neck of every candidate with it. But for me, I think his electability really is about how he speaks.

Some on the left have begun to criticize his "hollow platitudes," but I think those speeches are exactly the kind of thing that moves the majority of Americans. Hope is important. The idea that we have more in common than we have differences is important. The idea that we can make things better is important. For better or for worse, the people who will elect the next president aren't that interested in the details. The will of the people is what drives politicians to figure out the details. Churchill's speech on Dunkirk wasn't about details, it was about moving the will of the people. MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech wasn't about details, and neither was JFK's inaugural. The Gettysburg Address wasn't about details, either.

The Democratic Party should know by now that a general election isn't going to be won by someone without charisma. For me, electability is about finding someone who can move the will of the people.

Aren't his race and name going to kill him?
I don't know. Maybe. But if we as a nation won't elect someone because they're black or because their middle name is Hussein, then we deserve another four years of George W. Bush.

Obama is spending too much time triangulating his positions and pandering to the center. The Democrats should nominate Jerry Brown.
Obama doesn't believe in everything I believe in. For example, I seriously doubt that he's going to legalize, regulate, and tax "soft" drugs. But the country isn't a fucking Miata that can turn on a dime. It's a gigantic 18-wheeler filled with anvils towing a 45-foot boat filled with really fat people, and it's going way over the speed limit. Bush has moved us so far to the right that we're hitting the rumble strips on the shoulder. But most people on this truck/boat/metaphor thing aren't comfortable just yanking the wheel left as much as we can. We need to safely move back into the right lane before we can move into the passing lane, and that's going to require someone who can convince all these fat bastards that it's safe to move back into the right lane.

In my opinion, Obama realizes that rather than bogging down fighting over things that simply aren't going to happen anytime soon, we should find things we all agree need to be changed and change them.

Analogcabin @ 8:20 AM
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