The Obama Outlook:


Claudette, I think your question is very apt right now, so if you don’t mind, I am going to broadside what I am finding out there in the world of the wealthy, the red-necks, the partisans in this fight and the “undecideds” –the real minorities, the ethnic “haves” and “have-nots” who are legitimately undecided for the reasons I will get into shortly.
Since you asked, here is what this old curmudgeon finds and hears from his vantage point and in his travels.

So, strap yourself in.

First off, I do see racism as an underrated threat that is evident from the little clues and the innuendos that I am privy to and am receiving from those who I have been close to which does, in a way, both surprise and trouble me.

I had hoped and prayed that we had moved beyond the race riots, the fires in Newark, the stuff that I had seen during my service days. In those days, my bunkmates were black and they had their friends over at night and I like everyone else listened and enjoyed the music. But there was always that undercurrent that never went away.

And although we had come a long way, there was that cross-current in the air.

I sensed it back when I was covering South Carolina and the rest of the deep south. I sensed it when I sat with my customers and they were reminiscing about those good old days during the Civil War….

But, now, there is something else in the air.

People who claim to be fair-minded and progressive are not.

I don’t want to feed the flames of what we saw in the primaries but many folk who we suspect of being progressive in their views, I am finding to be coy or dishonest.

It’s the little things that are starting to add up.

In short, people don’t trust anything they are not familiar with.

And they are not familiar with a child who is neither black or white, a child of the world.

And I find it disturbing but it is almost the language of the herd.

If you are from outside, you are not adopted by the herd; you are left to fend for yourself or die. And I see much of that here..

But I also think that this is an issue that is divide by education and age.

The younger, more educated among us are falling on Obama’s side or so it seems.

There are still “idealists” among us but perhaps more than idealism, per se, the modus operandi seems to build around the idea that one, we either cannot survive any longer as a country unless we change or ways; or, two, the time is right for change in every way possible. The old have botched things so badly, that the young have to come in and set it right. The symbol of the young is Obama.

And I concur.

But that does not mean that McCain will just go away.

And as we’ve seen, no matter how outlandish the opposition, they still always score at 49% of the population plus which gives the lie to the polls that never seem to tap into the real truth because the public will never admit it.

To the young and the educated, McCain is just another old man who thinks the wrong way.

I believe the educated, too, sense that Obama is the vehicle for bringing about change; someone who with a wave of his own personal magic will transform the world before us.
He is the deux ex machine who comes in to save the world in Act III.

But there are concerns.

I was talking about such things to two young black men from the Geek Squad who came in to install some Best Buy equipment I indulged in.

We spent most of the day talking politics.

These young men were eye opening in their intelligence and candor. They had seen it all unlike most of us. They grew up in places that I knew to be “pits.” Yet, they had escaped its pull, moved to green Delaware for new lives and pulled it off. They pulled it off because they were bright and wanted more out of life.

Yet, it was clear to me that they didn’t see Obama as one of them. To me, it seemed that though they didn’t say it outright, for them, Obama was an elitest. He didn’t know what they knew; he didn’t have to fight their battles.

My guess is that they probably won’t vote and that is sad.

But their feelings run deep and for them, Obama is really nothing but a white man.

It seems an odd point of view; nonetheless, there are other incongruities in this election that have been barely discussed or scrutinized.

Obama is really in an impossible role.

A close friend of mine said he is worried about Obama although he is supporting him and believes that we are desparate for change. He is 83 and much my senior, but his mind is very adept. He said that the problem is that Obama fits into the role of a Kerry or a Gore. He is an orator. But as evidence shows, orators don’t win elections. They are too often perceived as above the fray, elitists who don’t relate to the average person.

And there is something right in what he says.

For my own tastes, I would have preferred a street fighter, somebody I could relate to, perhaps a Jackson for these times.

But truth to tell, Obama doesn’t come off that way.

Ah, he is bright; oh so bright that I have probably never heard a more gifted candidate.

But he also seems to be above the rest of us, mere mortals, and knows it.

Nor does his wife, despite her attempts, seem to get down and dirty and comforting.

Part of the problem is that nobody has ever seen anyone like him.

Moreover, nobody can really understand the complexity or the diversity of experience and backgrounds that this unique individual draws from.

He is truly representative of almost a new species of being as crazed as that may sound.

And the rest of us are not sure how to identify.

The trouble is that he has trouble playing the common man; he is not of that ilk.

And theirin, like a Shakespearean protagonist, may be the seeds of his karma.

He is not everyman; he is “special man” and he makes no bones about it.

But the rest of us don’t know him and there are fewer than a hundred days left.

John McCain, however, is comfortable like a squeaky old shoe, like a grand-dad who says dumb things but people can overlook that because they think they understand him—whether that’s really true or not.

I think that McCain is not as nice as he’d like us to believe.

But he has the background that we like.

So, therefore, is kind of Taoist challenge that we face.

Do we buy into something many of us feel comfortable with; a war hero who has been around a long time and seems to be the kind you might feel comfortable with or do you buy into something you don’t really know and don’t feel comfortable with.

I think it will ultimately boil down to the numbers—even if Obama says nothing wrong!

And that will be whether the educated and the young and the black progressives and the desire for fundamental change can overcompensate for those traditionalists who prefer something they know over something they don’t.

Elections have been decided for lesser reasons.

Meanwhile, McCain will still harp on familiar themes, whether he gets them right or wrong; and Obama will soar with his rhetoric but not interest us enough to want to go out and have a beer with him.

In the end, few things change and this by no means is going to be a slam dunk—no matter what the experts say.

And those of us in the party who think so are simply missing the point.

Les Aaron, the Armchair Curmudgeon…..