“obama is not a miracle elixir” but come on, we can still get excited

Frank Rich’s cautionary op-ed in this Sunday’s NYT entitled “Obama Is Not a Miracle Elixir” made some good points about Obama-fever (I admit to having caught a pretty serious case myself).  The main idea being that one man, albeit an incredibly charismatic and popular one, cannot save a whole party.  But I’d like to defend us, the lovers-of-Obama.  We’re not expecting him to single-handedly resurrect the Democratic Party – we’re just expecting him to run for President.  And win.

Rich writes:

What makes the liberal establishment’s crush on Mr. Obama disconcerting is that it too often sees him as a love child of a pollster’s focus group: a one-man Benetton ad who can be all things to all people. He’s black and he’s white. He’s both of immigrant stock (Kenya) and the American heartland (Kansas, yet). He speaks openly about his faith without disowning evolution. He has both gravitas and unpretentious humor. He was the editor of The Harvard Law Review and also won a Grammy (for the audiobook of his touching memoir, “Dreams From My Father”). He exudes perfection but has owned up to youthful indiscretions with drugs. He is post-boomer and post-civil-rights-movement. He is Bill Clinton without the baggage, a fail-safe 21st-century bridge from “A Place Called Hope” to “The Audacity of Hope.”

First of all, I don’t see what’s “disconcerting” about enthusiasm for a national-level figure who’s politically viable.  For the last several years there has been this litany of What’s Wrong With The Democrats:  Gore is wooden, Kerry is an elitist, Hillary is devisive.  So here’s Obama, nobody can find anything wrong with him, we can all find lots of things right with him, he’s got lots of appeal to lots of people.  So, yes, we have a “crush” on him.  What I find strange about the paragraph above is that, all of those qualities that make Obama “a love child of a pollster’s focus group” actually make people, real ones, like, oh I dont’ know – me – really like him. 

Rich also points out that, while Obama’s relative inexperience in national politics shouldn’t be held against his (just as it wasn’t held against the current president), he may still have to prove himself to not be a victim of that ailment that the whole rest of the party is afflicted with: acute timidity.

But Rich also reminds us that, on Iraq, an issue that Democrats have for some reason found it difficult to stand up on, Obama already (and consistently) has.  He reminds us:

That’s why it’s important to remember that on one true test for his party, Iraq, he was consistent from the start. On the long trail to a hotly competitive senatorial primary in Illinois, he repeatedly questioned the rationale for the war before it began, finally to protest it at a large rally in Chicago on the eve of the invasion. He judged Saddam to pose no immediate threat to America and argued for containment over a war he would soon label “dumb” and “political-driven.” He hasn’t changed. In his new book, he gives a specific date (the end of this year) for beginning “a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops” and doesn’t seem to care who calls it “cut and run.”

So it looks like he’s passed the biggest test thus far, and I think we (the fans) and Obama himself, have earned some serious Obamamania.  It’s also important to remember that while Obama has only served 2 years of his first Senate term, he spent many years in the Illinois State Legislature, and that years and years of Washington experience doesn’t necessarily add up to good decision-making and skillful leadership (cough, Dick Cheney).

Rich’s warning, that Obama – golden boy though he is – can’t make up for the cowardice and timidity of other Democrats, is well taken.  He closes his piece with:

The Democrats may well win on Election Day this year. But one of their best hopes for long-term viability in the post-Bush era is that Barack Obama steps up and changes the party before the party of terminal timidity and equivocation changes him.

True.  And I think Barack Obama can change the way the Democrats do business.  He can get us fired up, he can provide some national leadership, and he can give us a Presidential candidate to get excited about.  I think that’s a pretty good start.