When will there be an Obama here?A number of people have asked me what it's been like to observe the U.S. presidential election from Paris. That grafitti captures the experience: America has inspired Parisians. And my feelings have been pride and relief.
I am proud of the American electorate for taking a huge step in racial equality and moving from the "don't do what I do, do what I say" position to the "do what I do" position.
I am relieved because America resumed its role as an inspirational leader in the world. The fact is, we have not played that role in several years. Seeing it again now, I realize that I expect it of us. And when it went missing, there was a vacuum in global leadership.
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I've been working my way through The Dark Side by Jane Meyer, which chronicles how fear and aggression led the White House on a fear-driven security binge for the last seven years, and it looks as if finally we may set that aside and lead with hope and vision as we have in the past.
Interesting. I'm reading "The Limits of Power" by Andrew Bacevich. He also takes a hard run at the national security culture. Pretty harsh actually -- I would say that his is an anti-partisan perspective. He dishes it out on the last several presidents.
We'll see how inspired everyone is if Coke Zero manages to auger one into the tarmac.
I suspect the symbolism of this election will be much less important in that context.
Maybe so. But this is a nation that knows a thing or two about the power of symbolism at the top of government (i.e. de Gaulle, both times). Maybe they're onto something.
Symbolic like de Gaulle?
Perhaps like Petain.
A couple of history geeks debating the meaning of political symbols ... does it get any better than that?
At the time Pétain was brought in as head of state, he was a tried and tested war hero. He was a symbol of historical strength and trust based on experience. The problem turned out to be the future - he became a Vichy swine symbol of weakness and treachery.
Isn't Obama roughly the inverse of that? There really isn't much experience or testing in his past on which to base a symbol. He's more a symbol of hope and potential.
Which is precisely my point -- symbols mean little if they turn out to be hollow.
Your logic seems to be that if a tested person can fail, an untested one can succeed. That's a shaky roll of the dice, IMO.
No, I was subtly suggesting that McCain would have been a better map to Pétain. But the dice metaphor is apt. Although, I like to think of my Obama vote more like an investment in a small cap growth stock: lots of potential reward but significant risk.
Well I don't see McCain surrendering, under any circumstances, to anyone -- he proved his mettle during his five-and-a-half years in a North Vietmanese prison. If they couldn't break him, I suspect no one could.
As to your investment, I think you just put your money into an Internet start-up, with a CEO who has no track record of success. Potential for big reward maybe, but a huge risk based on nothing more than you like the guy's style.
Well he does have style - that's true. But you've taken a bit of an intellectual short-cut by assigning me a conveniently superficial reason for voting for him. If at some point you have an interest in the reasons I assigned myself, then I'll invite you to read my 24 October post.
Read it. Commented on it. We clearly disagree.
I don't think you made your choice for superficial reasons -- I just think you picked the superficial choice.
No. Experience. At. All.
Completely untested. Thoroughly untried. Positively unprepared.
Please try not to be shocked if he totally shanks a big one.
what on earth will happen if he DOES succeed?
Inconceivable!
But IMHO, I think success looks like this:
- A globally collaborative foreign policy;
- A re-focused national security strategy that restores U.S. ability to pursue terrorists and deal with hot-spots;
- Continuation of the employer-based healthcare system with the addition of a safety net plan for the uninsured;
- Competent management of recently partially nationalized financial institutions with an exit strategy in a reasonable timeframe.
Of course, I'll take more than that if they can deliver it.
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