Shelby Steele on Obama (not yet online): “we don’t yet know him”, and “a surprising degree of emptiness”. Something of an overstatement, but still generally on the mark. But nonetheless it’s extraordinary to see a media phenom turn into a mythic figure before our eyes – never have so many given so much faith for so little. As a media and cultural event, it’s fascinating. As a political event, it still strikes me as problematic. But you can’t fault his supporters at all – there is a reason people have faith in Obama: Americans have been so poorly served by their leaders that they are looking for Hope, Redemption and Salvation. Obama is becoming a vessel for their Faith.
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I love the choices that the U.S. voters are about to get…. a really old Republican who is not Republican enough for the right edge of that party and who has no mainstream support within it. He’s actually an indie candidate. And for the Dems, a woman with baggage, good and bad, and a young, untested yet highly charismatic black guy.
And whoever wins the big one, will inherit a huge mess that will suck up so much time, energy and resources of all kinds, it will be hard to bring forward any kind of original agenda.
From an American voter’s view, I’m not sure we really have any choices for real change, other than to clean up the mess we have made.