jmoiron.net

It's not often that I read something that is so dead on I feel compelled to write almost exclusively about it, but this Op-Ed by Frank Rich in the NY Times today is one of those times. It's about the rise of Obama in world politics and how his trip was perfectly timed to reap the maximum benefit. Two particularly salient points from the article:

It was laughable to watch journalists stamp their feet last week to try to push Mr. Obama into saying he was "wrong" about the surge. More than five years and 4,100 American fatalities later, they’re still not demanding that Mr. McCain admit he was wrong when he assured us that our adventure in Iraq would be fast, produce little American "bloodletting" and "be paid for by the Iraqis."

I suppose the only way to make that paragraph more delicious would be to put the word "journalists" in quotes. It should not be laughable that this hasn't been done, it should be utterly shocking and people should be marching in the streets about the complete lack of accountability we've allowed our public figures to get away with. The other clear point was:

What was most striking about the Obama speech in Berlin was not anything he said so much as the alternative reality it fostered: many American children have never before seen huge crowds turn out abroad to wave American flags instead of burn them.

To me, someone whose worldview exists outside the framing of what is acceptable and "serious" in mainstream US politics, there isn't actually a lot about Obama's politics thatexcites me. But things exist within a context.

We've had 8 years of boolean politics, where things are 100% black or white (you're either with us or you're with the terrorists), where newspeak and outright lying was only notable for it's increasing audacity, not for it's criminality, and where the reasoning behind decisions could be retroactively changed without much media or public outcry.

Obama is a candidate that thusfar has given people the credit of understanding that the equations are more complex than that, that the drop in violence might be more than simply "war + troop surge = success". He's not backed down in the face of ridiculous (and for any american, embarrassing) political bullying, explaining that a lack of a flag lapel pin does not equate to a lack of patriotism, and that those who wear their patriotism on their lapel have left it at the door in government. Given only this change, Obama is worth it; anything else is bonus, and this small observation from rich perfectly sums up these hopes, and the hope and belief that Obama engenders among many in the United States and across the world.