Why Now Obama?
Posted on June 2, 2008 - Filed Under Clinton, Obama, mccain |
There is something unique the American Presidency that makes people want to believe in something good.
8 years ago, a poor farmer in rural Bangladesh, trekked on foot to hear a US President speak. ”For me, the most memorable event in my life was the day I walked seven miles and almost saw Bill Clinton,” he later said. Due to security concerns the visit was called off shortly before it was to begin.
It is doubtful that this rural villager knew much about the politics of Bill Clinton. He wasn’t a democrat, in fact he probably didn’t know what meant to be one. He was there to see a symbol. A symbol of something good and hopeful.
But 8 years later, in a world transformed by terrorism and preemptive war, and in the age of American hubris and unilateralism, the image of the American President no longer conjures up symbolism of something good and hopeful. If you have traveled abroad since March of 2003 (the start of the Iraq War) then you know what I am talking about.
The 2008 election is a chance to fix what has gone astray. The Republican presumptive nominee, John McCain, understands that he can’t be tied to the Bush policies as they are widely considered an epic failure. McCain recognizes a new path is needed in Iraq, for our security, for our economy and for our environment. But we’ll leave talk of the general election for another day. Before we turn the page on this historic democratic primary its worth reflecting on it.
It wasn’t supposed to go this way. It wasn’t supposed to go this long. Every political pundit and junkie was convinced that the democratic primary would be over by February 5th. Hillary Clinton said so herself. But something funny happened on the way to February 5 - something changed.
How did we get here, to this strange moment in American politics, where the sure fire front runner fell by the wayside? It started in Iowa, that turned out not to be a blip on the screen, but a harbinger of things to come. Barack Obama did something that no other candidate has ever been able to do - he got young people out to vote. He got the disenfranchised out to vote. He got people to register to vote. Campaign after campaign there is always talk of motivating and engaging the youth of America. But its never happened, until now.
Obama is the first ‘Internet candidate’ in the same way that JFK was the first ‘television candidate.’ Maybe Obama’s ‘1960 Debate Moment’ came on youtube, in a video that was released by artist Will.i.am. Over 5 million people have watched it. The cost to the Obama campaign, $0.00. Around the same time that was released, Hillary Clinton bought one hour of TV time on the Hallmark Channel to host a town hall meeting, that amounted to an hour long commercial costing around $40,000.
Without the Internet, Obama would not have raised $200 million dollars and certainly he would not be the democratic party nominee. That distinction would have gone to Mrs. Clinton. But there is an Internet, and like we opined on Blogflict in December, the candidate that can harness it, can win the 2008 election.
New mediums of technology eventually find candidates who can use them to communicate effectively. Franklin Roosevelt did it with Radio. John Kennedy with Television. Now, Barack Obama joins that pantheon of communicators who used a new form of communication for political success. By November, we’ll find out if he’ll follow them to the West Wing.
Consider this. On the Republican ticket there has been a Bush or a Dole for every national election since 1976 (that’s before this author was born). Since 1988 we have had: Bush, Clinton, Clinton, Bush, Bush. The outcome of the last quarter century of American presidential politics hasn’t exactly been a call for change. Yet suddenly now both here and around the globe there is a palpable clamor for it.
Somewhere in an impoverished country a world away from the United States, someone is reading in a newspaper, or perhaps even browsing on an XO Laptop, about what is happening in race for the White House.
And already you can hear those thoughts creeping into the back of their heads, dreaming about the day they walk mile after mile to meet the man who could be the next American President.
Sphere: Related ContentComments
Leave a Reply