The Real Deal?

Change?
No more politics-as-usual?
A chief executive who can utter a coherent -- even lyrical -- sentence?

I want to believe.

Heretofore hailed by an insular crowd as a savior and Kennedy incarnate, Barack Obama now aspires to inspire the rest of America with his style, while instilling confidence in his questioned substance. It will be no easy task. Subtle position shifts and wardrobe additions have already demonstrated the tightrope that he is treading, and may threaten to chink his invaluably shining armor.

Is he the real deal, or a fraud? Pundits and the public alike wait to see whether the demands of the upcoming campaign will prove his mettle or corrupt his ideals.


Senator Obama will be afforded little margin of error when his youthful energy and silver tongue meet a general electorate of conservatives, cynics and passive racists looking for any reason to NOT vote for him. He will be under a microscope that his opponent will not, because of his experience, because of his skin, because of his message.

The bar is higher for him, not only because he has brazenly set it there, but because so many want him to fail so that they can safely pull the lever for their smiling, heroic, pasty, tough-talking grandfather, even while realizing that a McCain victory will likely entrench the current direction of the nation that so many of them decry.

Obama cannot complain -- it is a challenge that he invited. When a campaign is fueled by idealism and hope, its candidate faces an exaggerated level of expectation; he holds more than votes in his hands, but hearts (which are far more easily broken). A righteous man is a hair away from hypocrisy and thus must be twice as earnest.

We have seen this double-standard in play already. Every clarification of an Obama statement is analyzed as a sign of his skulduggery, each lapel pin labeled a capitulation. Meanwhile, Straight-Talking John McCain has schizophrenically reversed his position on myriad signature issues (immigration, campaign finance, tax structure, torture, energy solutions) and largely been given a pass.

Nominee McCain even denounced a bill which Maverick McCain introduced and which BEARS THE NAME THEY SHARE, but it is Obama who took the flip-flop heat for merely qualifying the conditions under which he would meet Iran’s president.

It is not fair, but Obama had to know that it wouldn’t be. Assuming the mantle of a “change” candidate is to take flight on gossamer wings -- the ability to soar tempered by fragility that can lead to disastrous descent.

Such was the fate he tempted with his recent opt-out of the public finance system: a dangerous (if calculated) step in a tenuous direction. Right-wing talking points that insist he “broke a vow” were simplified and exaggerated, but the move smelled like a change towards the status quo and against his image. The decision was understandable and defensible under the umbrella of his message…but the explanation is not sound-bite friendly, and so the headlines and uninformed perception were harsh. He will survive this, but must be wary of a slippery slope towards politics-as-usual that would dishearten his base and supply enough rationalization for the reluctant masses to justify a vote against him.

In the coming months, Barack Obama must be practical enough to win the skeptics while remaining true enough to retain the dreamers. Any misstep could alienate all sides and leave him ruined…but if he is the genuine article and can pull the sword from the stone -- uniting the nation behind him -- what an opportunity he will have. We will have.

I want to believe.