I think Hillary lost the nomination mostly because Obama ran a much better, smarter campaign. Some of that is for the reasons you mention: hiring entrenched Washington consultants vs. creative thinkers capitalizing on the zeitgeist. For some people it was her vote on Iraq which made a difference. But I don’t think you can argue that sexism—indeed, blatant misogyny at times—didn’t also play a role.

I value Obama’s community organizer experience, but that wasn’t what got him elected to the Illinois State Senate. It was ambition, and an astute grasp of party power dynamics which governed his strategic alliances. And he made it to the U.S. Senate with help from his Republican opponent, who self-destructed before the election. That makes Obama a politician, albeit a gifted one; hence he has my strategic, rather than idealistic, support.

The guy is a great campaigner, and he may just catapult himself to the rarefied position of president, even with all the negatives about him that are gaining traction in the electorate. But as you point out, campaigning is not governing. I would love nothing better than for him to have the chutzpah to save the US from collapse, à la FDR. But we really have no way of knowing whether that is going to happen until (or unless) it actually does.

At the very least, I desperately hope that he is able to reinstate sanity to the Supreme Court, which may well go completely off the deep end in the next term. For a conciliator such as Obama, just as with a centrist like Clinton, so much will also depend on the fighting spirit of Congressional Democrats. We shall see.

Hillary Clinton didn’t lose because she was a woman. She lost because she voted for the war.

There really are reasons to feel good about Obama because his victory is a victory for the relatively progressive wing of the Democratic Party over the comparatively conservative corporate types. People outside of New York just don’t realize how conservative HRC really is.

It’s not just that Clinton voted for the war, it’s that she refused to even talk to the anti-war movement and treated us with disdain. Indeed, the reason Hillary lost has nothing to do with her gender, it’s because she supported the war and did nothing to challenge Bush’s lies about it and then labeled us the naifs while she just repeated Republican bullshit.

And, there is the matter of process. Hillary also lost because her campaign was a deeply hierarchical one, run by Washington media consultants. Obama is a former community organizer and it is that grassroots experience that is so discounted in the media. But isn’t that precisely the kind of political experience we value.

Finally, health care. I’ve read some persuasive arguments that by eliminating the mandate requirement, Obama is also eliminating what was the biggest point of fear for most ordinary people about the Clinton plan both in 1993 and now. I realize there are good reasons for a mandate, but also remember back in 1993 that even I thought that the Clinton plan would leave me and many other peopel worse off rather than better off. Finally, I would note that FDR ran on a platform that promised none of the things that he eventually did to save the US in the emergency of the Depression. He advocated a balanced budget, for example in 1932. So you can’t take these campaign plans as the final word.

I think Obama may be the first really progressive president we have had since LBJ (Don’t get me startted on Carter). Carpe Diem!

Thank you very much for your contribution.

What’s interesting to me is how the various media/editorial folks seem to plain ole miss the above dynamic.

Talk about racism being the reason Clinton gets votes etc. Talk about a blind eye.

(and yes, it’s moot in one sense. But not in the fact of just not Seeing this pattern and/or not being willing to articulate it)

I think the art of national politics is knowing which lies will work for you and which against you. I don’t think that’s cynical though; it’s pretty realistic. The cynicism comes in when our expectations are dashed and we use our hurt and anger as an excuse to declare the whole show meaningless and disengage.

In answer to your question, never say never. OTOH, I hope you’re right about hope.

Do you really think the US can become any more cynical than it already is? I think a dose of hope (even knowing it is likely to fail. Because frankly, anyone who gets elected inherits a huge mess they’re going to get more blame for) is a good thing.