So many people I talk with are enamored with the thought of an Obama presidency. Not just the usual crowd of Democrats. Just yesterday I spoke with a man in the financial business, not a hot spot for Democrats; he told me that Obama was the one this year. He voted for Bush and said that he had 'had it' with the Republican Party after what he watched these past 7 years.One younger person with whom I spoke earlier said to me, "This is what it must have been during the Kennedy years, of course I wasn't around to know what it was like," he said. He's right, it is what it was all about. The excitement, the hope, the inspiration.
The Senator is coming to town on Sunday and already, there is a line-up to get tickets. The place is jammed, my son told me this morning. I read in the local paper this morning that McCain appeared yesterday in a 'jammed' restaurant. How sad. Hillary is coming to town tonight and will be at a high school auditorium.
People flock to Obama rallies; they want to be a part of history. They can feel that this is a phenomenon, a once-in-a-lifetime event. The youth of America surely are hungry for another Kennedy, another political leader who will inspire them and in whom they can put their trust and hope. The senator from Massachusetts did that for my generation much like the earlier senator from Illinois did in 1860.
There has been a large gap, a hole in the American psyche, ever since those magical days of Camelot in the early 60's. Seven years of war and terrorism along with lying and deceitful members of this administration have tarnished, corroded the ideals of governance spelled out so clearly in the American Constitution. Young voters today have not only witnessed these ugly events but have studied the vile days of Nixon as well as the hellish years of the Vietnam War, it too begun on specious maneuvering of politicos in the Johnson administration.Are they looking for 'change' or for hope? I think hope. Hope that there really can be a president in whom they can trust. Perhaps the word is trust. Somebody to pin hope upon. Somebody who will not disappoint them. The real thing. An honest man.
