What Obama's Iowa Win Means for Everyone
sweetpotato
Posts: 1,278
From AlterNet & Huffington Post:
Even if your candidate didn't win tonight, you have reason to celebrate. We all do.
Barack Obama's stirring victory in Iowa -- down home, folksy, farm-fed, Midwestern, and 92 percent white Iowa -- says a lot about America, and also about the current mindset of the American voter.
Because tonight voters decided that they didn't want to look back. They wanted to look into the future -- as if a country exhausted by the last seven years wanted to recapture its youth.
Bush's re-election in 2004 was a monument to the power of fear and fear-mongering. Be Very Afraid was Bush/Cheney's Plans A through Z. The only card in the Rove-dealt deck. And it worked. America, its vision distorted by the mushroom clouds conjured by Bush and Cheney, made a collective sprint to the bomb shelters in our minds, our lizard brains responding to fear rather than hope.
And the Clintons -- their Hillary-as-incumbent-strategy sputtering -- followed the Bush blueprint in Iowa and played the fear card again and again and again.
Be afraid of Obama, they warned us. Be afraid of something new, something different. He might meet with our enemies. His middle name is Hussein. He went to a madrassa school. A vote for him would be like rolling the dice, the former president said on Charlie Rose.
And the people of Iowa heard him, and chose to roll the dice.
Obama's win might not have legs. Hope could give way to fear once again. But, for tonight at least, it holds a mirror up to the face of America, and we can look at ourselves with pride. This is the kind of country America was meant to be, even if you are for Clinton or Edwards -- or even Huckabee or Giuliani.
It's the kind of country we've always imagined ourselves being -- even if in the last seven years we fell horribly short: a young country, an optimistic country, a forward-looking country, a country not afraid to take risks or to dream big.
Bill Clinton has privately told friends that if Hillary didn't win, it would be because of the two weeks that followed her shaky performance in the Philadelphia debate.
But it wasn't those two weeks. Indeed, if we were to pinpoint one decisive moment, it would be Bill Clinton on Charlie Rose, arrogant and entitled, dismissive and fear-mongering. And then Bill Clinton giving us a refresher course in '90s-style truth-twisting and obfuscation -- making stuff about always having been against the war, and about Hillary having always been for every good decision during his presidency and against every bad one, from Ireland to Sarajevo to Rwanda.
So voters in Iowa remembered the past and decided that they didn't want to go back. They wanted to move ahead. Even if that meant rolling the dice.
Again, this moment may not last. But, for tonight, I am going to savor it -- and cross my fingers that it may stand as the day that fear as a winning political tactic died. Killed by an "unlikely" candidate -- as Obama called himself again and again -- who seized the moment, and reminded America of its youth and the optimism it longs to recapture.
~By Arianna Huffington, HuffingtonPost.com
http://www.alternet.org/story/72596/
Even if your candidate didn't win tonight, you have reason to celebrate. We all do.
Barack Obama's stirring victory in Iowa -- down home, folksy, farm-fed, Midwestern, and 92 percent white Iowa -- says a lot about America, and also about the current mindset of the American voter.
Because tonight voters decided that they didn't want to look back. They wanted to look into the future -- as if a country exhausted by the last seven years wanted to recapture its youth.
Bush's re-election in 2004 was a monument to the power of fear and fear-mongering. Be Very Afraid was Bush/Cheney's Plans A through Z. The only card in the Rove-dealt deck. And it worked. America, its vision distorted by the mushroom clouds conjured by Bush and Cheney, made a collective sprint to the bomb shelters in our minds, our lizard brains responding to fear rather than hope.
And the Clintons -- their Hillary-as-incumbent-strategy sputtering -- followed the Bush blueprint in Iowa and played the fear card again and again and again.
Be afraid of Obama, they warned us. Be afraid of something new, something different. He might meet with our enemies. His middle name is Hussein. He went to a madrassa school. A vote for him would be like rolling the dice, the former president said on Charlie Rose.
And the people of Iowa heard him, and chose to roll the dice.
Obama's win might not have legs. Hope could give way to fear once again. But, for tonight at least, it holds a mirror up to the face of America, and we can look at ourselves with pride. This is the kind of country America was meant to be, even if you are for Clinton or Edwards -- or even Huckabee or Giuliani.
It's the kind of country we've always imagined ourselves being -- even if in the last seven years we fell horribly short: a young country, an optimistic country, a forward-looking country, a country not afraid to take risks or to dream big.
Bill Clinton has privately told friends that if Hillary didn't win, it would be because of the two weeks that followed her shaky performance in the Philadelphia debate.
But it wasn't those two weeks. Indeed, if we were to pinpoint one decisive moment, it would be Bill Clinton on Charlie Rose, arrogant and entitled, dismissive and fear-mongering. And then Bill Clinton giving us a refresher course in '90s-style truth-twisting and obfuscation -- making stuff about always having been against the war, and about Hillary having always been for every good decision during his presidency and against every bad one, from Ireland to Sarajevo to Rwanda.
So voters in Iowa remembered the past and decided that they didn't want to go back. They wanted to move ahead. Even if that meant rolling the dice.
Again, this moment may not last. But, for tonight, I am going to savor it -- and cross my fingers that it may stand as the day that fear as a winning political tactic died. Killed by an "unlikely" candidate -- as Obama called himself again and again -- who seized the moment, and reminded America of its youth and the optimism it longs to recapture.
~By Arianna Huffington, HuffingtonPost.com
http://www.alternet.org/story/72596/
"Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States, Barack Obama."
"Obama's main opponent in this election on November 4th (was) not John McCain, it (was) ignorance."~Michael Moore
"i'm feeling kinda righteous right now. with my badass motherfuckin' ukulele!"
~ed, 8/7
"Obama's main opponent in this election on November 4th (was) not John McCain, it (was) ignorance."~Michael Moore
"i'm feeling kinda righteous right now. with my badass motherfuckin' ukulele!"
~ed, 8/7
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg
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( o.O)
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i have to agree.
Obama getting a win in a state that is overwhelmingly white is inspiring.
The fact they picked someone other than the clearly established mainstream on either side of the political divide is also a good sign.
That being said,
my hopes, with regards to the economy specificaly, are in the dumps. Huckabee will literaly destroy the economy, and I fear Obama will just fumble it through sheer innocent incomeptence int he field.
If I opened it now would you not understand?
...are those who've helped us.
Right 'round the corner could be bigger than ourselves.
thats true. but he being the first african american to do this makes it significant.
i may faint.
"Obama's main opponent in this election on November 4th (was) not John McCain, it (was) ignorance."~Michael Moore
"i'm feeling kinda righteous right now. with my badass motherfuckin' ukulele!"
~ed, 8/7
i agree...
but it is one step at a time... women couldnt vote at one time... it was an accomplishment when they forced their way in... and it deserved to be recognized and celebrated... and now it is common place because of their struggle and their achievment
in the reality of the world, for a black man to win the Iowa caucus and become the front runner in the presidential race is HUGE, and inspiring. and now hopefully it becomes commonplace
and finally put to death the myth that america was not ready for a black or woman leader... i always thought that was bullshit...
"Obama's main opponent in this election on November 4th (was) not John McCain, it (was) ignorance."~Michael Moore
"i'm feeling kinda righteous right now. with my badass motherfuckin' ukulele!"
~ed, 8/7
i was just thrilled to see hillary finish 3rd behind your boy... i did a little celebration dance cabbage patch white boy style when it was all wrapped up
Why do you think I voted in the Dem caucus?
she definitely does not have what bill has...
personality and charm
....and OJ might finally get some work...
ok...maybe not.
I getting the sinking feeling this election very well turn into the douche and turd sandwich scenario.
another couple weeks should take some fog off the glasses though.
and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg
(\__/)
( o.O)
(")_(")
is there a vote for dumbest post of the day? i nominate this one.
if that were true, then the "war on christmas" could never have happened. and what a sad day that would have been. you know how christians are actually the underdogs in this country, right? just ask bill o'reilly.
"Obama's main opponent in this election on November 4th (was) not John McCain, it (was) ignorance."~Michael Moore
"i'm feeling kinda righteous right now. with my badass motherfuckin' ukulele!"
~ed, 8/7
i'm just gonna write it as "X-mas" from now on in protest. happy HOLIDAYS!
Mr. Smith, by saying that Obama's potential victory would illegitamize any claims invloving race, brought up by blacks is pretty absurd. Who are you to say what claims blacks can and can't make because of some merely symbolic progress? And affirmative action made obsolete? Oh okay, we'll just have to forget about that hundred years of segregated public schools and expect them to catch up and keep quiet.
first, it was a an exaggeration. Obviously its not completely true. However, this is not "MERELY" symbolic progress! When white America elects a black man to be the single most powerful human being on the planet, yeah i'd say that puts a damper on many claims that society is holding one back. When a black coach makes it to the superbowl in 2007, thats not a big deal. Its a pretty fucking big deal when a black guy gets elected president.
There is no greater example possible that we are far from the days of segregation, except maybe for whites to accept that Jesus was black or something. Of course things arent perfect, but racial prejudice is definately an uncommon occurance at this point.
Second, Affirmative action has been around for decades, and it has worked well, even though it is discriminatory and completely against the constitution. I understand extreme times call for extreme measures, but those times are all but over. I believe its a bad policy now and hurts everyone in many cases.
I keep hearing this, and I think its great that our country can have legitimate candidates that fill those two criteria, but how is it any different than if I said I support someone because I thought "We need to keep an old white guy in office"
Dont get me wrong, I could care less about an old white guy in the white house, race and sex dont matter to me for my candidate of choice, but this double standard is out of hand.
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