Andrew Sullivan recounts yet another amazing story about an independent turned Obama supporter, and then asks: Who else does this?
My answer: No one.
But remember, this isn't about Obama. It is about us. And this reader captures almost perfectly why:
After all of that waiting, we were only a few hundred feet from the auditorium when we were told that the main room had filled to capacity as well as the overflow room. Just when we were ready to turn back, we were told that Barack would speak to us outside, and would do so FIRST.So imagine a scene like the stump speeches only read about in books, people jostling on snowbanks, climbing fences, trees, even each other in the calm cold that was Maine yesterday to hear and see Barack, for only a few minutes. And did he deliver.
There was excitement, there was hope, and there were specifics. Talk of new ways to use our old industrial centers, dead and forgotten by the establishment. Talk of help with college tuition. Talk of thinking about our children and grandchildren first. He then spent time talking to and shaking hands with the crowd before going in.
I could not believe this was happening. No crowd control, no checking of bags, Barack in a potentially dangerous setting with no way for Secret Service to cover him. And he did it without hesitation. Anyone who will do this in a state with a population likely to vote for Hillary, a tiny, white, poor, lost in the back woods near Canada population, and for those foolish enough to show up "late", is someone who clearly gives a damn. He was comfortable with a chaotic situation, worked it to his advantage on the fly, and did it with grace and aplomb. Hillary speaks of worries about Barack being a likable guy, same as George Bush. She's right, and also dead wrong. Likable they both can be, yes. But George Bush is the man who drinks you under the table, then drives you all home and thusly off a cliff. Barack is the guy you follow into battle, ready to do what needs to be done to save a country in danger.
It isn't about what he can do for us, but what we can do together for ourselves. If you don't see that yet, it is only because you haven't been paying close enough attention.
He's a community organizer at heart, not a politician. Until now, its been impossible to organize the nation this way. But the Internet? Just this once, it really has changed everything. Now we can organize on a scale that would have been previously unimaginable. In politics, the Internet both compresses time and collapses space, simultaneously overcoming two of the movement building biggest obstacles. In 1992 this wouldn't have been possible. But today? Yes, we can.
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