The Audacity of Hope

This started as a comment - a long-ass comment - to Pete's post below. Typing in that small window, I realized I wanted to say more than what that window wanted to hold.

It's almost depressing how excited we all are at the prospect of an eloquent, intelligent and charismatic leader that seems to hold so many of our beliefs dear to his/her heart.

This man does seem to be from a mold that can only produce an amazing human being every 50-60 years. A seemingly endangered type of individual that possesses the true characteristics of a benign leader - that actually is willing to lead. To bear the slings, arrows and relatively small paycheck and use his/her gifts to help a nation, if not the world.

Take a minute. Go YouTube speeches from Bush, Kerry, Gore, Hilary and a host of others. Even my man Bill doesn't quite have what this dude does. A better orator than Bill? How is that even possible?

After the rise of W., I was certain that our country was forever stuck in this idiocracy. This acceptance of mediocre. This "my job is HARD" type of President.

If anything, Senator Obama is proving to us that we have settled the last eight years for complete bullshit and corrupt leadership. For a president that puts his friends and his own wallet above the American people. For lies, torture, stealing and utter incompetence.

I hear you. You're saying that you didn't settle. But yeah, you/we did. That...person...is still in charge. Still the Commander-in-Chief. The simple fact that Bush still holds that office if proof enough that we...Americans...have settled for being led by a criminal, a buffoon, a comparably illiterate man that has skated his way to the top. I wear a t-shirt that says 1-8-09, proclaiming that as the last day we will put up with the worst president this country may have ever seen. Why isn't that date today, yesterday, two years ago? I have sadly settled. And so has the rest of this country.

What maybe struck me most is Governor Richardson's quote that Senator Obama is a "good guy." Why the hell haven't we put a "good guy" in office since perhaps President Carter? I love my Bill, but is he a "good guy"? I don't give a crap about the fooling around - leave that to the provincial mouth-breathers who care about such behavior, in spite of what's happening in their own houses. But President Clinton - my man Bill - still has an air of "Look at me. Ain't I something?" to him. That wink that told us he was smarter than everyone else. He is - all that and more. But I would have loved him even more if he just did the wonderful job he did - and let that do the talking.

But I can't escape the questions. Am I a sucker? Am I putting the Senator from Illinois on a pedestal that time, the truth and the difficulties that lie ahead will topple? Maybe. But Barack does that for me and millions of others. He gives us the audacity of hope. The chance to dream of a better America that will not settle anymore.