Obamania

Barrack Obama looks set to pick up the nominations from New Hampshire tonight. And the internet is bubbling over with Obamania. All bloggers are writing about it. I don’t think I will though. I’m not a very close observer of US politics anymore.

OK, I’ll just say one thing: I worry about the urge, far too common in America, to rely on politics as a means of making oneself feel good about oneself. Obama makes Democrats feel great about being American. He allows them to put the acrimony of the Clinton years behind them, to forget the Iraq war, and most obviously perhaps, the legacy of slavery. He is, the slogan has it, “a healer.”

This is all fine. But remember that the American desire to feel good about themselves also brought us president Bush and the war in Iraq. What makes Americans feel good often has disastrous effects on the rest of the world.

Arguably it has disastrous effects on America too. What that country needs are some very serious and far-reaching reforms — health care of course, but also drastic increases in taxes for the rich. Can Obama deliver that? I doubt it. He is surely far too polarizing a person to carry out contentious programs.

Edwards would surely be a lot better. Or why not Clinton? Maybe even McCain? (I always had a thing for left-wing conservatives …)

Obamania

Barrack Obama looks set to pick up the nominations from New Hampshire tonight. And the internet is bubbling over with Obamania. All bloggers are writing about it. I don’t think I will though. I’m not a very close observer of US politics anymore.

OK, I’ll just say one thing: I worry about the urge, far too common in America, to rely on politics as a means of making oneself feel good about oneself. Obama makes Democrats feel great about being American. He allows them to put the acrimony of the Clinton years behind them, to forget the Iraq war, and most obviously perhaps, the legacy of slavery. He is, the slogan has it, “a healer.”

This is all fine. But remember that the American desire to feel good about themselves also brought us president Bush and the war in Iraq. What makes Americans feel good often has disastrous effects on the rest of the world.

Arguably it has disastrous effects on America too. What that country needs are some very serious and far-reaching reforms — health care of course, but also drastic increases in taxes for the rich. Can Obama deliver that? I doubt it. He is surely far too polarizing a person to carry out contentious programs.

Edwards would surely be a lot better. Or why not Clinton? Maybe even McCain? (I always had a thing for left-wing conservatives …)