Notes on Obama and Hillary

I had some rare free time in New Hampshire last night,  so I drove up to Concord to Barack Obama's rally to see what the fuss is all about. I've seen Obama in the Senate, but never on the stump. 

There was huge turnout at Concord High School – at least 2,000 people. By contrast Richardson's largest event in New Hampshire drew about 150. Not to diss the governor, who's run a respectable campaign, I'm just saying.

Obama kept his fans waiting about an hour, but when he emerged after a brief introduction by his wife, Michelle, the delay was quickly forgotten. The senator has an effortless cool, no question about that. He also has the best campaign soundtrack I’ve heard yet – U2, James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone, etc. We'll excuse the John Mayer. 

Anyway, Obama can certainly turn a phrase. But as an orator, he's no MLK, as some are already comparing him to. At least not yet. Like Bill Clinton, he has a tendency to talk too long and to be a little obtuse. He spoke for about 45 minutes last night, and while he was good, he wasn’t electrifying. Then again, he was probably going on two hours sleep.

Obama was funniest when he riffed on all the candidates who have jumped on the “change” bandwagon – and yes, that includes Richardson, who desperately proclaimed “I love change!” during Saturday night’s debate.

“Everybody’s all about change now,” Obama said, grinning.

The senator's genuine call for political change, as well as his earnest pledge to include Democrats AND Independents and Republicans in the political process, is truly appealing. I can see why voters are eating this stuff up after years of the bitter, divisive politics played by both the Bush White House and the Democratic leadership in Congress.

However – and keep in mind I’m jaded from seven years in Washington – I don't think an Obama win in November is going to have them all singing Kumbaya under the Capitol Dome. Don't tell me House and Senate Republicans will be as easily seduced by Obama as the American public is all of a sudden. But speaking about change is a start. And younger voters are seriously psyched about the possibility that Obama embodies.

The response to his message in Condord last night, and the looks on the faces of some of these very young supporters in the audience, was near rapturous. They truly do believe he stands for something that seems elusive in a time when the news is dominated by war, economic plight and global warming. That something is hope. I thought it was a hopeful sign for American race relations last week when Iowa, perhaps the whitest state in the nation, chose a black man in their caucuses.

But then it dawned on me that white Iowa is a lot different (and more progressive) than white Alabama or Georgia or Mississippi, or the entire Red State South – a key voting bloc in any presidential campaign. Michelle Obama has lamented that black people don’t view her husband as black enough, and that they haven’t been overly enthusiastic about his campaign. Iowa might have changed that. Maybe the scores of black voters who typically stay home on Election Day in the deep South will be awakened by this truly historic moment. We’ll see on Jan. 26 in South Carolina.

—————————————————————————

A quick note on the teary-eyed Clinton episode yesterday. I thought it was real – born of fatigue and frustration – and several people (at an impromptu Radisson bar focus group after the rally) told me it made them like her more, not less. Hmmm.

Rush Limbaugh  (yes, I listen to all views across the political spectrum, especially on endless drives through New Hampshire) actually had a funny riff yesterday where he impersonated Bill Clinton coaching Hillary on how to emote, so as to become more sympathetic.

It went something like this: “No, no…don’t bite your bottom lip, I did that and the people are onto it. Just let your voice crack a little.”

Anyway, Hillary just wants this so, so badly.

The tears – and Clinton herself at times – remind me of the brilliant dark comedy “Election” and the hyper-ambitious Tracy Flick, Reese Witherspoon’s character in that movie.

Tracy runs for election of the Student Body and goes insane when a popular football player, who hasn’t paid his political dues, enters the race and threatens to win it. Remember how she goes down the hall ripping her opponent’s paper political signs from the walls? Hillary probably won’t be pilfering Obama yard signs, but she might well daydream about it