5.06.2008
I'm going to bed
But if you've ever driven through Gary I think you'll agree that it's a poignant place for an election to come down. From the highway, my eye is always drawn to this old, Federalist dome. Maybe it's city hall, I don't know. It just peaks up above the side of the ramped highway--right up against the road--and it's caked in solidified exhaust. Whatever purpose and glory it once had, continues to have, is now secondary to the Skyway. But it's a beautiful building seen from an improbable angle.
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4 comments:
I couldn't be prouder of my home state. Okay, maybe 2% prouder. But that's not a lot. It can be argued that it was Indiana that stopped Hillary's clawing her way back.
Personal anecdote: Obama's great-great-great-grandfather settled some land in the tiny county where I was born. My oldest friend (we were born 2 days apart to close friends), it turns out, is also descended from Obama's GGG grandpa, making him Obama's 5th cousin, or something. His mother, as conservative as they come, who told me back in '92 that Clinton's election was "scary," met her kin, Obama, the other day. I love her quote: "I vote for the person."
Indiana, hats off. You done good!
You're right, Pete. There is something a little poetic about Gary as the town where Obama "clinched" the nomination. Obama would do well if he remembers Gary every day he sets foot in the oval office. 85% turnout!
Now let's see the media treat the Clinton campaign the way they treated Huckabee's campaign after it was clear he had lost. I wonder if they'll be able to break their addiction to this contest. I wonder if I'll be able to.
Cool story, Grendel.
If what I'm seeing so far is any indication, the media worm has turned. Russert called the nomination last night and, though she's re-added a stop in WV, Clinton canceled all campaigning today late last night.
My prediction: a valedictory win in WV. She's out of money but closing out a campaign is a process-- and staying in through WV, where she'll rout Obama-- is to do him a favor, in a small way. She'll get out soon enough but if she doesn't, my guess is that the supers will migrate on 5/21 after Obama does better than he should in KY and kills in OR.
On the aforementioned worm- somehow the media was tricked into discussing POLICY with the gas tax thing. I'm not optimistic that it will last, but it was a quietly amazing development, wasn't it? And what if, somehow, it does last? The essential question is one of leadership- if we have a president who demands that we think, we'll think. It's just that it's been awhile. Entire economies and institutions have been erected on the premise that we do not think, will not think. These structures and institutions aren't going anywhere, but the hint of self-reform I saw in the media over the past week, while small, felt like something genuinely novel.
I feel optimistic this morning. It's a strange feeling, but it extends beyond the contest and perhaps into that too-often dreary mental space I call The Future.
This election has been a bonanza for the media, especially welcomed in such a piss-poor economic situation. They reaped their bonus millions from Obama and Clinton but now the game is nearing the end. And I expect it to be graceful and satisfying -- as Pete finds it, something better is in the air. Isn't that the promise of Obama? Magic -- which is now what we have to call reasonableness and wisdom.
Get out those poker skills, O-man. Put this away with the class we have come to expect.
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