Could Obama Be The Cure?

History says, Don't hope
On this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime,
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up.
And hope and history rhyme."
--from "The Cure for Troy," quoted by Ted Sorenson

1. Did you hear Senator Clinton's speech last night? Celebrating her victory in Kentucky? She said she will continue the campaign. That was expected. But did you see her falsely claim that she has more popular votes than Sen. Obama? Of course, she's counting Florida, whose numbers don't count, and Michigan, where Obama wasn't even on the ballot. Sticking this campaign out til the end may enhance Senator Clinton's resume as fighter. It may also support those who see her tendency to exaggerate or lie to win, such as the day she lived in Bosnia under sniper fire, when the cameras showed her calmly walking down a rap with a little girl waiting to give her flowers and to sing her a song.

2. Yes, by securing a majority of pledged delegates, presidential candidate Obama moved closer to securing the democratic nomination for the presidency. But did you notice what he didn't say? He didn't say, "I got the pledged delegates, I got the popular votes, I got the superdelegates. So,baby, it's all over but the crying for Hillary and her people!" No. He was humble and deferential. There are two reasons for this, one political and one personal.

The political reason is that he simply doesn't want to alienate Clinton's supporters. He knows that, despite blaming the media for the way Senator Clinton was treated, despite claiming that Obama is a sexist, Obama knows that most of her supporters will vote for him in the general. And he's right. Research shows that Americans who say they will not vote for a candidate from their own party in a primary almost always vote for that candidate from their party in the general. Obama knows that Clinton supporters will be no different. He was only trying to ensure that as many as possible vote in the general.

The personal reason is that Obama doesn't appear to be a mean-spirited politician who would unnecessarily make another person, even a candidate of a mean-spirited campaign adversary like Clinton, look small. He appears to be genuine about the notion of pulling all Americans together. This is at least, in part, the reason he was deferential to Senator Clinton last night, saying she has run a tough campaign, that she has, in his words, "shattered myths and broken barriers and changed the America for my daughters and your daughters."

This characteristic is one of the reasons he has won a majority of the pledged delegates, has superdelegates endorsing him in droves, and will probably be the next president of the United States-- In Obama, people see more they don't see a power-grabbing, self-self-serving politician, they see the positive attributes of a good leader, a good man.

3. Did you hear that Ted Sorensen, John Kennedy's adviser and speechwriter, endorsed Obama. He said great leaders rarely come along in one's lifetime. He said he's seen two in his: John Kennedy and Barack Obama. And by quoting Irish poet Seamus Heaney (see above), he clearly suggested that Obama is the John Kennedy of our times.

The daddy thinks Sorenson may be right.