As I write this I am watching Obama making a no note, spontaneous speech in Houston, having been projected the winner of the Wisconsin primary. He is taking on all the flack he is getting from Hillary and the GOPhers, and turning that flack back onto them.
Based on the reactions of those in the hall, he could probably tell them that he would suspend the Constitution if elected and would likely be applauded.
However, you would be in error to equate the congregation in that hall in Houston tonight with the larger audience who is or will be paying attention to the specifics he is articulating, in response to those who have tried to deride him as a cockeyed optimist, a spinner of fairy tales, a snake oil salesman of hope, a messiah who will be abandoned and denied by his disciples three times before the cock crows, to take David Brooks' shameless analogy to an even more shameless implied denouement. You can read his column in the NYTimes here.
Tonight Obama is addressing both his supporters and his detractors, and confirms to me that he's got what it takes to lead; enthusiasm, optimism, energy, drive and eloquence essential to conveying his message. He also is the genuinely earned and honest beneficiary of the mostly unspoken appeal to American hearts and sense of justice. It is not only that he should not be beaten because he is black, but that there is an ironic and poetic justice to his being a credible, legal, morally just candidate for our nation's highest office. Comparisons have been made to the humble beginnings and subsequent spirit of Lincoln, a white man president who prosecuted a devastating war to make it possilble for Obama to prosecute a healing peace, right here in what is still the United States of America.
Leanderthal, Lighthouse Keeper
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