OBAMA: IT’S NOT THE WORDS, IT’S THE MUSIC

It’s not official yet, there is still the hurdle of Texas to clear (and wouldn’t it be a kick in the crotch if that state did it to us … again) but with each passing Tuesday Barack Obama is looking less and less like a candidate and more and more like a president. This is an unlikely development. If you’d have wagered on that proposition a year ago you would have gotten a good enough price to pay off your subprime, come November.

Which begs the question: Why? There isn’t enough difference between Obama and Hillary on the issues to start a decent bar fight. Both of them make John McCain look like something out of a black and white newsreel of Guadalcanal. If nominated, Hillary could beat McCain and Barack would beat McCain. Either one is a worthy champion for the Democratic party.

But Hillary Clinton is a supplicant and Barack Obama is a movement. Because the American people are smarter than the American punditry. They know, despite constant nattering about how important “the issues” are, that the fine points don’t matter.

Whatever health plan she has or he has, it won’t be the health plan we get. Not as long as there are forty Republicans in the senate. Ditto for how and when we get out of Iraq, or end recession, or fix Medicare, or what have you and you have plenty. Party platforms and presidential position papers are nice starting points, and that’s all. It’s just words.

Leadership is music. How does this person who presumes to spend the next four years on our flatscreens make us feel about ourselves? Is this the face we want to present to the rest of the world?

Barack Obama talks endlessly about change. It’s an empty word. But that’s all right, he’s a blank slate. Obama is a canvas upon which Americans are projecting their sweetest visions of the future. That is a heavy load to be carrying, and so far, he’s doing it with grace.

For too long the Republicans have owned the “feel good about America” franchise. Their latest occupant of the White House has screwed it up so bad he practically forced the Democrats into being the Cassandra party. But “we suck” is no way to win elections, or run a country.

Barack Obama knows this. He’s selling hope. Americans are sick and tired of being sick and tired. They look at the sludge pipe of the world and they know we’re doing something right here. But with George Bush in power they’re damned if they can say what.

We want our pride back. We want our hope back. We want “American” not to be a cuss word anymore. We want to sing like Woodstock.

Hillary Clinton can’t do that. John McCain, American hero that he unquestionably is, won’t do that.

Barack Obama might. He’s got the music; he’s getting the votes. He just might.