The Schalter

Written by: Ian Dunn

I love Barack Obama. And this is no school girl crush. I obsess over every action of the man. I pray for the destruction of his enemies. On the night of the Super Tuesday primaries I stayed up til four in the morning to hear the results despite having work at eight the next day. I was desolate when he lost New Hampshire and elated when he won South Carolina in a landslide. I have managed to seriously irritate some close friends by being utterly dismissive of any suggestion that Hilary Clinton might not be a beast from the lower levels of hell.

I am without question a Barack partisan. And it’s fair to say that’s bloody weird. I’m a Scot with no vote in the American election. I am experienced enough to know that dumping this amount of hope and expectation onto a political candidate is bound to end in disappointment. And it’s surely pretty damn stupid to be this invested in a contest I have no power to influence even slightly.

So why? Why do I find myself doodling “If only Gore would endorse!” during boring phone calls and spending much of the working day scanning American political blogs for every last scrap of intel? Why, in short, do I care?

Well there is the obvious line. America is the most powerful country in the world and what happens there affects us all, so it’s in my own interests to be an enlightened observer. Sure, I’ve got family members in Iraq and if there’s a recession in the States the ripple effects might end with me losing my job here in Scotland. But to be honest that’s a bit of crock. That stuff only really affects me if you take the longest of views and it’s very questionable if the man in the White House would really have the power to seriously change such things.

In short I’m way more invested than any outside observer has a right to be.

There is without question a degree of vicarious thrill involved. I’m a political junkie and a really chunky dogfight of this kind is my meat and drink. The current struggle to be the democratic nominee for American President is a five star feast. Compared to the meat and potatoes of Westminster politics this is a dish too rich to resist.

It’s the classic outsider versus the establishment struggle. The wife of the former President who’s been neck deep in Democratic politics for thirty years versus the outsider promising change. And I fancy myself enough of a rebel to have an innate sympathy for the man from Illinois.

And Jesus Christ, Obama gives good speech. I’m a sucker for a good line and he has more of them than any politician in recent memory. Hell, maybe I’m shallow but truly captivating oratory is rare enough in this day and age that it hit me like a punch from Mike Tyson. I’ve heard a lot of political speeches and to see a truly great speaker bind an audience to himself with his will and his words is an astonishing thing. I might also suggest that it’s no small skill for a potential leader of a intensely powerful yet profoundly divided country.

But I’m not a fool. I am aware that perhaps the largest part of his appeal is that he’s a blank slate. We can project what we want onto him. His record is slim enough that all manner of men can see their greatest hopes in him. He’s anti war, he’s good for the environment, he’ll chase the special interests out of Washington. We hope. He’s new enough and fresh enough that he can be whatever I want him to be.

That’s undoubtedly a key part of his appeal. We know he’s charismatic, and he’s made a lot of vaguely leftish promises but the truth is we cannot be sure what kind of president he’ll make. He might be a Ronald Reagan-esque colossus who reshapes America and the world. We don’t know.

Politics is a fantastically dirty business that demands a thousand little compromises every day. There’s also a reasonable chance he follows in Jimmy Carter’s footsteps and is a rotting stinking failure, weak and ineffectual, who achieves nothing except to embolden the very worst in America and across the world.

Even if he easily clears that low bar there’s going to be huge disappointment. All the more so because he promised so much. He’ll have to settle for what’s less than perfect, live in the real world.

And yet, And yet. There’s one story about Obama I keep coming back to. It dates to his time in the Illinois state senate.

He introduced a bill that would require the videotaping of all police interrogations in capital cases. This was a good bill. It prevented police intimidation and brutality and stopped false confessions being obtained under such circumstances.

However no politician’s ever won an election sticking up for criminals. It was strongly opposed by police, state prosecutors, and the newly elected Democratic governor. Death-penalty abolitionists viewed the bill as too moderate, and his fellow legislators were terrified of being seen as soft on crime.

The Bill passed unanimously and has since been adopted as a model by several other states.

Because he convinced his opponents. He sat down with them and convinced them. All of them.

And that’s how it should work. The whole damn democratic system, that’s how it should work. A man has a good idea and he convinces everyone else.

Bill Clinton famously said voting for Obama would be a roll of the dice. Well, maybe I love Obama because at heart I’m a gambler. He might well be a disaster but he might be something sensational. Sure, he won’t achieve half of what his supporters hope he will, but a tenth of it would be an almighty achievement.

For decades the United States and much of the West has been governed by snake charmers and mountebanks. Men and women who govern for their party, their power and those they owe favours to. And not in that order.

This guy might be something else. How can you not want to find out?

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This post is tagged Barack Obama, George Bush, Hilary Clinton, Politics, USA