RYE/MANCHESTER, N.H — “He’s just too good to be true!”
exclaimed one woman who was glowing after meeting Barack Obama
following a town hall meeting in the gymnasium of Rye Elementary
School.
“I’m already psyched about him, and that just sort of solidified
my opinion,” said another woman, Suzi MacDonald, who came to the
event with her son.
Given the youth and inexperience of the junior senator from
Illinois, it is easy to dismiss him, as many political observers
have, as a flash in the pan who will inevitably be annihilated by
the Hillary Clinton juggernaut. But seeing the man in action and
witnessing the unbridled enthusiasm he generates among his
supporters makes it difficult to write off his chances.
It is particularly troubling for a conservative to watch Obama
speak, because it is clear how naive his views are and how
dangerous their policy implications. At the same time, it is hard
to escape the conclusion that in Obama, Democrats may have finally
found a leader who is charismatic enough not only to win, but to
advance liberalism.
If elected, Obama would replace President Bush’s War on
Terrorism with a War on Cynicism. This was apparent in three
appearances Obama made in the Granite State on Friday and
Saturday.
“As we’re fed this steady diet of cynicism, it’s easy to start
buying into it and put off hard decisions,” he told Southern New
Hampshire University graduates in a commencement address on
Saturday that encouraged them to think about more than just getting
rich, to cultivate empathy, challenge themselves, and learn to
persevere.
Earlier that morning, he attended a rally in Manchester for
about 550 supporters who he dispatched door-to-door to ask New
Hampshire residents to urge the state’s Republican senators, Judd
Gregg and John Sununu, to change their votes on the Iraq War. Obama
has pointed out in recent campaign appearances that, “we are just
16 votes short from bringing this war to a close.” The canvassing
effort served a duel purpose, as volunteers were also instructed to
ask voters which candidates they were leaning toward and what
issues were most important issues to them. Considering it is only
May and Saturday was particularly chilly and rainy, the turnout was
impressive.
If the Iraq War does not end by Inauguration Day, bringing it to
a conclusion would be Obama’s top priority as president, he said at
Friday’s town hall meeting. His other top priorities would be
creating universal healthcare, improving the education system, and
fighting global warming. Battling global terrorism did not make the
cut.
“When George Bush steps down from office, the entire world will
breathe a sigh of relief,” Obama said.
Obama’s foreign policy would call for negotiations with Iran and
Syria, as well as the doubling of foreign aid, taking issue with
the fact that “we have come to view security only in terms of
military spending, and military action.” He said he has spoken to
terrorism experts who have told him that there are only about
10,000 committed terrorists, and the rest are people facing
hardship, or being educated in madrassas that teach hate. “That
environment allows the hardcore terrorists to recruit,” Obama
said.
He said it wasn’t being naive or soft to argue that humanitarian
assistance could be used to reduce terrorism, but simply a matter
of making a smart investment. “If you spend the money up front, you
don’t end up having to spend as much money on the back end on much
more costly military interventions,” he said. Obama provided the
example of the Marshall Plan as an instance of foreign aid
contributing to our long-term security. There is an obvious problem
with that analogy. Before instituting the Marshall Plan, we had to
defeat the Nazis first.
This is not to underestimate the potential appeal of Obama’s
message. With Bush’s approval ratings in the gutter, public
disapproval of the war overwhelming, and many Americans sick of the
divisiveness in Washington, it is easy to see how voters could find
the fresh-faced Obama soothing. This is especially true in a
Democratic primary.
Talk to Obama supporters about why they prefer him to Hillary,
and they will tell you that he’s authentic while she’s programmed,
that he can bring people together while she’s polarizing, that he
represents change while she is representative of more of the same,
and, yes, that
he opposed the Iraq War while she voted for it.
Brenda MacLellan, an eighth grade teacher from Londonderry, said
she was turned off by Clinton after meeting her at a February town
hall meeting in Concord. A one-time John Kerry delegate, she is now
actively supporting Obama, along with her husband.
“Here I am a woman, who wouldn’t mind a woman president, a lot
of my friends are going to vote for her because of Bill, so I was
really torn,” MacLellan told me after the Rye town hall meeting.
“But when I think of Barack, and where he stood on civil rights,
and thinking about the real people, that’s what we need again. We
don’t need a Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton dynasty.”
