Meet my friend Barack Obama

I've written this not so much for DKos visitors as for other people. People who just don't get Barack Obama. Let me know what you think.

I first ran into Barack in an article in 2004 in the New Yorker. It was one of their trademark profiles. I remember it introducing this guy with the funny name. At first he sounded alien. Unlike my other friends. Then by the end of the article I was really intrigued. I liked what he said and really liked what he represented. I felt like I could really understand where he was coming from.

Later that year I sat through some hours of watching the Democratic Convention in Boston waiting for Obama’s keynote speech. My husband can vouch for the fact that I was pretty cranky about not missing it. It was my first real Obama-fix. It met my expectations and flew past them. And I felt like I totally understood him. You know how you meet some people and really click? You connect? Well that’s how I felt about Barack Obama.

Since then he’s gotten lots friends. A lot of people hang on his words. Huge crowds gather when he speaks.

But I still know lots of people who don’t "get" Barack Obama. They say: he’s pretty slick, his followers are part of new craze—robots, fanatics, his ideas are shallow, his ideas are pretty conservative, certainly middle-of-the road, he’s going to pander to conservatives, and then the policies that are passed won’t be worth the paper they are written on.

Well, for all these doubters, I feel I need to introduce my friend to them.

The first thing I want you to know is that Barack is not a progressive’s progressive. I know I am going to be disappointed by some of the meat on his policies and initiatives. But I don’t mind. I trust him. He is going to find that place where different groups, people from a pretty large part of the politcal map are going to meet. Once he has gotten people to come to an agreement, then he will see where things go. Is more needed? Well, that first step didn’t hurt too much did it? He’ll be like my dentist who takes things a step at a time and so doesn’t scare me.

That is why there is a disconnect between his vision which is pretty progressive and some of those meat and potatoes policies. He is engaged in finding the center where Americans can agree. And then growing that center. He has seen that last-person-standing politics pretty well guarantees disappointment, hurt and in the end failure. Or at least a feeling that our expectations and hopes have crumbled once again. You have to know what I am referring to hear if you’ve sat through the last 10 years.

Another thing about my friend is that he has amazing patience. People see JFK, RFK, Lincoln. I see Gandhi or maybe some Buddhism (oh NO!!! not another religious controversy!!!). Time and again he is able to feel the hit, stop, breathe, and then respond—calmly, intelligently. His only problem is that he sometimes misses the news cycle. So all of his friends end up sitting on the sidelines getting frantic, hoping he isn’t wounded, while the media swarm. But I’ve learned to try to catch my breath, step back from the edge, and know that I can depend on my friend. A case in point is the now famous "A More Perfect Union" speech. No sound bite. It’s a LONG speech by our instant messaging standards. My hope is that he has now put race and religion outside the reach of the smear machines. Since then these crappy smears seem to land like lead and drop with a thud with all of us looking at them lying there. Those attacks end up looking a bit pathetic.

I know I don’t have that ability to not respond, to not show the hurt, but my friend does—and that’s one reason I have no problem looking up to him. He ends up making me feel like a better person.

Another thing about this guy. He doesn’t change. At least not much by the standards of every night a new news bite. The talk changing with each audience. The spinning of the spin etc. I think that is one reason his slogan, change you can believe in, works. In an odd way, because he is consistent, I can believe he will make some changes. That it isn’t just more talk. I know that he will reduce troops in Iraq, engage the world in addressing the Middle East situation, in a way that hasn’t been tried—because he says so. And he doesn’t waft with the wind on these core ideas.

Another thing about my friend Obama. People say he is full of glib phrases, hot air, glitz. Well you know what? He is an awesome politician. In the baby-kissing and fellow-feeling categories he can match-up with the best. He has his own style. He’s pretty cool I’ll admit, but he can also be nerdy. But what he doesn’t ever do is try to be someone he isn’t. He does give great, entertaining speeches. What I am proud of is how my friend can keep the energy going like a great entertainer. You don’t see people in his audiences slumping and sagging like you do at most speechifying events. I love looking at the miles of people, with their signs, their smiles, their chants. Wow!

At this point when I read about Barack, it’s like hearing from my best friend. The one who moved away years ago, but when we get together it’s like there is no space between us. We understand each other. I hope that some of the doubters, the cynics, some of the people who have been left in the lurch by some of their previous friends, can find a connection with Barack Obama, and learn to believe. I really think they’ll be glad they did.