Miscellaneous

I'm a Bandwagon Poseur!

I want to thank JMW for taking the bait and responding to my challenge last week to address Barack Obama's perceived weaknesses -- that his soaring rhetoric lacks policy substance. I encourage those still on the Hillary/Obama fence to check out the entire post, but here's a taste:

Sometimes elections -- if they're between candidates who aren't radically opposed -- really aren't about policy. I especially feel this way about someone like Clinton, who has yet to tell me there's a single tough decision to be made about her dream plans, as if they will be smoothly enacted on her favorite day, "day one." Sometimes elections should be about vaguer notions -- this country's built on a few of them, and their vagueness doesn't mitigate their power. We're looking for someone to lead us, after all. If Hillary Clinton's grim view of political trench warfare was the only good option for Democrats this year, I could understand her being nominated, though I wouldn't vote for her. But with Obama available as an option -- someone with similar positions and a broad, bipartisan base of good will directed at him -- I just can't wrap my head around it. I'm not saying that as an apostle, I swear to Obama.

After he posted it, I posited a theory: Maybe some folks (like myself) have been somewhat reluctant to jump on the Obama bandwagon because, like anything else with that amount of hype surrounding it, the contrarian in all of us doesn't want to be a part of the screeching masses. But you know: Fuck it. I'm gonna be another of the faceless millions throwing their bras at Obama. And if that makes me a bandwagon poseur, then at least I'll be a bandwagon poseur supporting the best candidate.

Full post as published by Quiz Law on February 11, 2008 (boomark / email).