James MacDonald on Making Light:
“It’s like Barack Obama saw his shadow and we’re going to have six more weeks of campaigning.”
It could be worse; we could be fated to repeat the last six weeks of campaigning over and over until the dems get it right.
So, in spite of all the recent outrage over comments and sermons made by the Pastor of the United Church of Christ church where Barack Obama has been a long time member, a recent survey by the Pew Center finds that there has been little reduction in the number of people who incorrectly believe that Obama is a Muslim.
There is little evidence that the recent news about Obama’s affiliation with the United Church of Christ has dispelled the impression that he is Muslim. . . . Nearly one-in-ten (9%) of those who heard a lot about Wright still believe that Obama is Muslim.
I suppose they must just think the UCC is some kind of Muslim church or something.
(Via Crooked Timber.)
Zag and I just went and did our civil duty and voted in the Massachusetts “Super Tuesday” Primary (well, I voted, Zag observed). With Edwards out of the race, and down to Clinton and Obama, I found that trying to decide on policy was no longer working for me. Neither really seems to embrace my policy ideals, and in important ways. I have doubts about Obama on healthcare, and Clinton on foreign policy, and both on a range of other issues.I’ve been leaning Obama for a while, and a few things finally pushed me over. One of them was the video above. I’ve watched over and over. I wasn’t sure there was any of this kind of hope left in the country. But Obama really does seem to be able to bring it out in people. If I can’t decide on policy, then I want to go with the candidate that can inspire us to our best. Clinton seems to want us to feel that she will be the competent executive, that we can trust her sober judgement and her dogged slogging along, working the machine. I just can’t settle for that, especially having seen the previous Clinton administration.
I have to go with Hope.
Edit: I pretty much go along with what Patrick at Making Light says here, although I’m a little more swept up at the moment. I especially like this:
I’m for Obama knowing perfectly well that, as Bill Clinton suggested, it’s a “roll of the dice”. A roll of the dice for Democrats, for progressives, for those of us who’ve fought so hard against the right-wing frames that Obama sometimes (sometimes craftily, sometimes naively) deploys. Because I think a Hillary Clinton candidacy will be another game of inches, yielding—at best—another four or eight years of knifework in the dark. Because I think an Obama candidacy might actually shake up the whole gameboard, energize good people, create room and space for real change.
Because he seems to know something extraordinarily important, something so frequently missing from progressive politics in this country, in this time: how to hearten people. Because when I watch him speak, I see fearful people becoming brave.
That’s not enough. But it’s something. It’s a real something. It’s a start.
From the Group News Blog, but bears repeating:
Approximate Total Voter Turnout (approximate): 356,000
Percentage of total vote:
24.5% Obama (D)
20.5% Edwards (D)
19.8% Clinton (D)
11.4% Huckabee (R)
Remember that the Democratic caucuses in Iowa are a much more of an ordeal and a bigger demand on time from caucusers.
3 posts in one night! A new record!