This is the full quote from Mathews'
http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/brad-wilmouth/2008/02/13/matthews-obama-speech-caused-thrill-going-my-leg
" I have to tell you, you know, it's part of reporting this case, this election, the feeling most people get when they hear Barack Obama's speech. My, I felt this thrill going up my leg. I mean, I don't have that too often. No, seriously. It's a dramatic event. He speaks about America in a way that has nothing to do with politics. It has to do with the feeling we have about our country. And that is an objective assessment. "
Like many books, this is the last paragraph I typed. Being my first post in the political forum, I may have gone above and beyond the call of insanity. I find this forum on MJ's to be the 2nd most passionate, next to Sports Teams and their fans. It is fascinating to read passion and that is what I see when I read through this forum.
It might be his objective assessment or Obama may have promised Mathews the White House Press correspondent position, doesn't matter. It is undeniable that Obama has been successful gaining votes and money based on his oral description of what he believes America can be.
To be quite cynical, In our day and age of, "You're either with us or against us" You must take a hard lined stance against hope, to be anti-Obama. The easy response is, "I'm not against hope, I'm just being a realist." Yet we debate on a website where you find posts about wagering on Money Line underdogs. Hoping that the long shot comes through and I'll be damned, sometimes, it happens. So call it faith or call it risk, that's what you have to wager on hope.
So now I wait for some period of time and someone, smarter than me, responds with a compelling reason of why this is idealistic rhetoric with no real world application. I can buy that, I really can but it leads me to what I believe is my best argument for voting for Obama.
We are on the brink of post modern civilization revolution. I live in a country that I am both one of us and one of them. The election debacle of 2000 focused on hanging chads instead of the States of America Divided. That election showed that both halves of voting Americans thought that they knew what was best for the direction of the country. Neither Gore nor Bush stood a chance after that election. Half of the voters were going to feel cheated and we (The American Population) would further develop the us/them mentality. Less thee be a true independent you are both them and us and when broken down into a line item moral list, even the true independents fall into categories that aren't labeled pros and cons, they are labeled us or them (better known as liberal/conservative). We coexist, They are on PTA's, they umpire youth baseball, they are our neighbor's. They hold doors for people going into a building and they say thank you. They watch Nascar and they also cry at the end of Old Yeller. We talk about them and they talk about us, yet we still, albeit damn near improbable, coexist. How much easier this world would be, if we just had those glasses that Rowdy Roddy Piper had in the movie, "They Live" that showed us who they were.
Which brings me off of the soap box and down to, "a vote for means." A vote for McCain means that half of the people feel like we are going in the same direction as we are now and like it or not, half of the people hate where we are now. Personally, albeit a hindsight moment, I thought that the McCain of 8 years ago was the right person to bring us to the middle, ala together. And he was against internet gambling on collegiate sports at that time.
A vote for Clinton presents a polar shift which means those that feel shat upon now are vindicated and banish the they's to eternal (4 to 8 years) of damnation. Call Obama idealistic, but universal health care (something I believe is the right thing to do) will be an all out war because some people believe that their hard earned tax dollars will be used for people to take advantage of a system that no matter how good the idea is conceived will never be fool proof to deny those looking to take advantage of the system. I myself find that the conspiracy theory on how more people take advantage of the welfare system than those that truly need it is just as absurd as the 9/11 was orchestrated by the government conspiracy theory.
So what does a vote for Obama mean. I can tell you what just about half of the people will say, "It's a vote for the democratic party." Which is the us/them mentality which threatens to doom our great nation. If you think I've typed a lot now, just imagine how long it would be if I talked about the process flaw of democratically picking 1 of 2 (sometimes 3) persons to be the figure head of the greatest nation the world has ever seen. Is that the change Obama talks about, I HOPE so, but I do know that he talks about bringing the nation together and that is something I want to be a part of. I think that is more important than universal health care and I believe it is more important than bringing the troops home tomorrow. You can't please everyone is about the truest statement ever made but I HOPE that we can please most people. Pleasing half is the worst thing we can do this year.
Obama criticism, and I say this with the experience of being 0 for 1 in a public office election. Human nature and the desire to win have led him to play the election game. Name the last politician who ran a 100% vote for me campaign and won. I can't name one, because the game is based on showing why the other candidate is the wrong choice and why you would be better. Obama does get to say that he never voted for the Iraq war, but to use that as a negative against Clinton is unfair. We all cried on 9/11, we all wanted retribution and for a brief moment in time, we were unified as a nation in preventing that kind of pain from ever happening again. I feel that the current administration could have done more to solidify the American Spirit but there was no give. You're with us or you're against us. Now that we're back to the way it was I am able to type this without fear of being Dixie chicked because we are back to the us/them ways.
Two things I hate - The if you think it's bad now argument. I bite, tell me how it's going to get worse. Ok, I agree. I can now live with this level of badness. That is the best case scenario for the person making that argument. I don't agree to disagree with this argument. Make a better case.
Second is the term flip flopper. Why would we have debate if it was a crime to change your mind. Unfortunately, I'm not dead set in my ways, I do believe that my mind can be changed through compelling argument. I feel sorry for those that can't.
So this was the point - where I stopped writing and went back to reread. It makes so much sense in my head yet my fingers won't put it altogether. I wanted to write about how I feel that people's concerns are more personal than patriotic. How sometimes compromise means that the other side gets their way completely. And here's why - Abortion, Death Penalty, war, health care, welfare, taxes, immigration. Those are deeply personal topics that many feel that the other side is completely wrong. Can you write them all down and understand why the other side feels the way they do. You don't have to agree but you should be able to understand why they feel a certain way. Now what can you give up.
Maybe I can do it with one question.
Can you give without receiving?
Can you imagine a State of the Union address with both sides of the floor standing and clapping together more times than only one side doing it.
I can't with Clinton.
I can't with McCain.
I can with Obama.
At least I HOPE so.
