Senator Barak Obama is a powerful speaker, that’s a fact. His message of hope is a powerful motivator, particularly among youth. Now that he has Iowa and New Hampshire under his belt in this primary season, it looks as if his hopeful message has transformed him into the darling of the Democratic party and the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.
My observation is that Obama's own personal hope may be that his remarkable speaking ability will catapult him into the highest job in the land without ever having to bother with the hard work of establishing a real record. He didn’t spend enough time representing my state of Illinois in the U.S. Senate to convince me that he wasn’t just using his win here as a stepping stone to catapult him into a presidential campaign. Yet it appears that it just might work for him, if his speaking ability can keep the twenty-somethings fired up enough to actually go to the polls.
But as a sixty-something, I prefer my next president not be chosen by a bunch of twenty-somethings who are themselves untested by life. When in my twenties I, too, never thought I’d need Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, or even life or health insurance. I never would have guessed, had I even thought about it, that the price for health or life insurance in my twenties was not the same as it is now that I’m in my sixties, or that, if you have insurance, your insurance company can actually arbitrarily deny you medical care. Without being tested in the pitfalls of life, having had virtually everything provided for them, twenty-somethings are vulnerable to non-specific, motivational promises of hope by a charismatic speaker. Everyone wants to have hope. But those of us who’ve been battered around by life know that you better bet more on what you know, or at least on what you can be reasonably sure of based upon past experience, than on a mere hope for a better future.
In my opinion, Barak Obama is more like the twenty-somethings that he appeals to than the forty-something that he is, not having been battered by life, or even really by his campaign opponents. And he is certainly the darling of the media ... any inflection leveled his way is pounced upon by talking heads as a rabid attack. My concern is that with him as our Democratic nominee, we better hope that he can prevail against the real tests to come: the Republican Swiftboat machine, and then, should he ride that gauntlet successfully, which is questionable, as our president against all the other forces of darkness that prevail in these uncertain times.
Much as I like Barak Obama, much as I believe he shows more promise than any politician in recent memory, I’m not yet willing to bet the highest office in the land, my future, or the future of our country on a promise of hope. I say we have to know that he can deliver. Once he’s more tested, I’m confident he’ll make a great president.
