The Zong

In case you missed it, Barack Obama woke up last night.

Perhaps just in the nick of time, the Obama of the ‘04 Democratic National Convention has shown up and thrown his hat into the presidential race. His skills as an orator have never been in question, and although he had been running what I thought was a somewhat disappointing campaign to this point, his people sure earned their paycheck in Iowa, and that speech has got to scare the shit out of the Clinton camp.

A look at the Iowa numbers suggests that far from simply appealing to younger voters, a trait boasted by just about every progressive candidate I can remember, they actually showed up for Obama at the caucuses. I think things are obviously far from settled, even if Obama takes New Hampshire, but if younger voters actually show up this year across the rest of the country, (entrance polls in Iowa showed a 5% increase over 2004 in younger voters) Obama should easily win the nomination, and the story of 2008 will be the uprising of young voters. As long as it isn’t about swing states or butterfly ballots, I’ll be just fine with that.

I’ll admit that it bothers me how much most of these political cycles are scripted; had Hillary Clinton won Iowa, I’m sure many of the stories surrounding her victory would sound very similar to those surrounding Obama’s. I’m also wary of voting for a candidate based upon a well-manufactured cult of personality, and will struggle hard to separate enthusiasm for a cause with fanaticism for a public figure who speaks really well. Nevertheless, that speech was a great one, and it might be just what’s needed to galvanize the brain-dead electorate of the last two presidential elections into doing something right for a change.

- M.G.