I’ve been through election nights that brought a political earthquake to the country. I’ve never been through an election night that brought two.
Barack Obama has won the Iowa caucuses. You’d have to have a heart of stone not to feel moved by this. An African-American man wins a closely fought campaign in a pivotal state. He beats two strong opponents, including the mighty Clinton machine. He does it in a system that favors rural voters. He does it by getting young voters to come out to the caucuses.
This is a huge moment. It’s one of those times when a movement that seemed ethereal and idealistic became a reality and took on political substance….
….[Mike Huckabee has appeal because he] understands much better than Mitt Romney that we have a crisis of authority in this country. People have lost faith in their leaders’ ability to respond to problems. While Romney embodies the leadership class, Huckabee went after it. He criticized Wall Street and K Street. Most importantly, he sensed that conservatives do not believe their own movement is well led. He took on Rush Limbaugh, the Club for Growth and even President Bush. The old guard threw everything they had at him, and their diminished power is now exposed.
…Huckabee [also] understands how middle-class anxiety is really lived. Democrats talk about wages. But real middle-class families have more to fear economically from divorce than from a free trade pact. A person’s lifetime prospects will be threatened more by single parenting than by outsourcing. Huckabee understands that economic well-being is fused with social and moral well-being, and he talks about the inter-relationship in a way no other candidate has.
In terms of politics I [i]really[/i] want to avoid the primary season. I’d also like to avoid most of the general election season and do my own research without nightly calls from campaign offices. I can’t wait until 11/5/08.
Well, I guess I have a heart of stone — I’m not particularly moved. He’s a candidate, pure and simple, and the media is acting as if this is America Pre-1960. Everyone has made hay over these first two battlegrounds being overwhelmingly rural and white and, gasp, a black man won anyway! I don’t like the way this election is being cast and this racist drama will get even worse when the primaries in the South begin. If Obama does not win in other predominantly white states, are those states then going to be categorized as racist for not choosing him? This is a slippery slope.
The real story is that Obama has an excellent machine at work and was very, very good at getting people to come and listen to him (with the major help of Oprah, of course). He and his campaign worked hard, people are unhappy with the status quo and they liked his message. He’s not the first black presidential candidate but he’s probably the first to have widespread appeal. Many people wanted Colin Powell to run and some are still wishing Condi Rice would. Polls show (and have shown in the past) that the vast majority of Americans would support a black president. This isn’t new or news.
I find the lack of appreciation as to why Mike Huckabee has much appeal by too many who should know better to be baffling. Good for David Brooks for getting it right.
I was in a chat room I frequent yesterday and the person who was speaking said the only reason Mike Huckabee won Iowa was the evangelical voters. Never mind that those voters are anything but a monolith, that is not all there is to it. Mr. Huckabee is a genuine person and a conviction politican, and he articulates many themes that resonate with many Americans. He also enjoys what he is doing. This is why he has national appeal.
I think it very unlikely that Mike Huckabee can get the Republican nomination, however, as does David Brooks. But that raises the question as to who does. I find it interesting that Intrade recently had John McCain in the lead for the Republican nomination. We shall see.
Teatime in #2 your second paragraph on Obama is quite good. He also played the faith theme well as the Religion and Ethics story posted today well illustrates but which was not widely reported.
If you listen to him speak when he speaks of the urgency of the now from Martin Luther King Jr. he speaks with the passion and piercing focus of a gifted preacher. That is another very important reason why he did well.
Thanks, Canon Harmon, and you’re absolutely right. He IS a gifted speaker and he preaches the gospel of hope. Americans are longing for that right now.
I do hope, however, that he will defuse the racial element that’s being drummed up. I find insulting the media assertions that a biracial candidate winning in predominantly white states is uncanny, particularly to Southern voters. The media speculation in that vein has already begun in regard to South Carolina. It underscores how the Northeastern liberal media characterizes the South and it certainly cannot help Obama unless he is willing to take it on.
Amen Kendall – Huckabee is a reminder that faith & the angry edges of capitalism are no allies. I have been baffled how the evangelical elite has written him off for the most part.