The Superhero Candidate Myth

I'm not sure exactly when it happened, but there seems to have been a semi-revolt against the candidacy of Barack Obama on the blogsphere lately. Today's frontpage post by Kos on the difference between Dodd and Obama is pretty heavy on the anti-Obama side. Two days ago, Matt Stoller at OpenLeft wrote an apocolyptic post entitled "Obama is Done" in which he said the following:

To win in 2008, you have to find a base of support that is bigger than the other person's base of support.  Barack Obama has not done that, and will probably not do that.  The Clinton campaign has down up establishment support, but has not locked down progressives.  Only a strategy that brings progressives, African-Americans, and young people can block a Clinton nomination, and that requires a real withdrawal strategy on Iraq and some real leadership.  Obama, with his recent speech and his Oprah obsession, has now made it quite clear that his strategy is targeted at elites and that he will not pull this coalition together.

Both Stoller and Kos reference their anger with Obama's lack of a withdrawal strategy on Iraq. Last time I checked, Obama had one.

Just yesterday, Obama gave a detailed speech on his plan to get America out of Iraq.

In his address, Mr. Obama proposed removing American combat troops at a pace of one or two brigades a month, which is about twice as fast as American commanders in Iraq have deemed prudent.

Sounds like a plan to me.

Here is the problem: many people on the netroots, even big-wigs like Kos and Stoller, are at their wits end over Iraq. They worked their butts off in 2006 to ensure that our party took back Congress so that they could have some voice, if not control, over the way our country is going. When we actually won last November, I'm afraid that a lot of people thought that Reid, Pelosi, and their new majority were going to wave a magical wand and the whole country was going to change. This is exactly the same kind of naive idealism that causes the detrimental split we currently see in our party.

So what does this do? Well, for starters, it causes many people to more or less dump on certain good politicians because they either, A. Aren't doing things fast enough for them, or B. Have "sold-out" to the man. They want a Superhero, not a politician. Well, ladies and gentleman, I'm sorry to break it to you: he/she isn't coming.

To a lot of people in 2004 and even as early as this year, Obama was that superhero. He was a talented orator with progressive stances on issues we care about. He opposed the war. He talked of hope. He was a fresh face. But then, POOF, he sells out! But did he really sell out? Or rather, did he position himself to be a contender in the 21st century United States of America - an America that twice elected Reagan and George W. Bush. Did I mention he was African-American and liberal?

I'm a college student. On my campus, there are a group of students who call themselves the Global Justice Project. This small group of students has all the right ideas - they protest the Iraq War, make noise about civil liberty violations on campus, and hold up signs at the ROTC office. And while these kids feel good about what they are doing, no one on campus listens to what they say because of the way they say it. These 15 kids who wear bandanas and tight jeans don't connect with Polo wearing rich kids majoring in Finance. And if they cannot connect with those kids, aka the majority of the population, then how are we supposed to change anything?

National politics is exactly the same. If you cannot compromise and say things in language that ordinary people can understand, then you might as well give up. We all know Obama opposes the war, wants the troops home, and will do so as President. That was made clear when he opposed the war in 2002. But if the guy doesn't get up on the desks of the Senate and scream "No Blood for Oil!", give him a friggin break - he is trying to win not just the Democratic primary, but the general election.

Barack Obama is not a superhero, only a man. But he is a good man who agrees with us and it's only fair that we realize that and let him do his thing.

He will end this war. We will end this war. Just be patient and don't abandon ship at the first sight of strategy. After all, we Democrats should give that idea a chance sometime....