T.F. Torrey’s Things Worth Reading

Well, somehow we’ve made it. The primaries and the debates and the campaigning are all over. Tomorrow is the big day: the biggest election we will probably ever see. However it turns out, it will be historic. Whether we’ll have celebrations or riots in the streets is still unknown, but it seems to me we must have one or the other.

I find myself in unusual territory this election. I’m not sure I have ever voted for a presidential candidate who has finished first, or second. I have long been a member of a so-called “third party”, because both mainstream parties seem insincere and complacent. I don’t buy into the “wasting your vote” argument, and I’ve thought that the best way to effect change was to show support for a third party rather than to vote for a Democrat or a Republican.

But not this time.

This time, in this election, things are different. The stakes are very high. The country and the world are facing immense and immediate problems. Foremost in my mind are the climate crisis and the peak oil phenomenon, challenges that could literally and easily bring an abrupt end to civilization as we know it. Crowding out these problems in the popular mindset are the financial meltdown and the growing recession, which have combined to form the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression. Add to these the problems the current administration has constructed over the last eight years–wars of conquest abroad, erosion of civil liberties at home, habeas corpus, torture, warrantless wiretapping, and on and on and on. In total, the problems facing us range from inconvenient to expensive to deadly, and our fate may be decided by who wins the election tomorrow.

Given the magnitude and immediacy of the problems, we can’t afford another wasted term. We need more than change; we need a mandate, and we need a leader who can run with it.

The Republicans have put forth John McCain as their candidate. He promises to “bring change to Washington”. From what I’ve seen, however, the change he promises is merely to continue to do the same thing that Bush has been doing, except harder, and to finally make it all work as advertised. And though he’s made vague promises on lots of things, the loudest chants are “earmarks” and “Drill, baby, drill.” To me, this clearly demonstrates that McCain not only lacks the right answers; he doesn’t even understand the problems.

Fortunately, the Democrats have a better answer this time: Barack Obama.

As I’ve watched the meteoric rise of Barack Obama throughout the primaries and the general election campaign, I’ve been more impressed every step of the way. At every turn he’s faced tremendous obstacles and roadblocks where I could see no solution for him, where I thought he was finished, that he’d finally met his match. And at every step I’ve seen him find a way to find a way. Against all the odds, and despite all the challenges, he has risen to every occasion. And more than that, he and his team have gotten better every step of the way. They’ve covered bases I didn’t even realize were in the game. It’s gotten to the point where I trust Barack Obama to come up with amazing solutions to the problems that I see as insurmountable, and I just watch with my mouth hanging open. Really.

And they’ve done it all with a level of charisma, class, dignity, honesty and integrity that I’ve never seen approached by a politician of any party. It’s been absolutely amazing. For the first time in my life, I have found a politician who I genuinely believe is smarter than I am. I never thought this day would come.

And not a moment too soon.

There are those who say that Barack Obama is a gifted speaker, but that the biggest thing he has ever run is his own presidential campaign. They say that it is one thing to run a successful political campaign, but something else altogether to govern effectively. I disagree with that notion. The business of a successful campaign and the business of effective governing are the same business: politics. The keys to success in each are the same: finding real solutions to the problems at hand, communicating those solutions to people persuasively, and hammering out compromises to gather enough support to bring success. Politics. Is there anyone better at this game right now than Barack Obama? I don’t think so. And though it surely takes more than soaring rhetoric to solve problems, it is hard to sell even great ideas without good communications. With the problems we face today, we need smart answers and the soaring rhetoric to get people to believe them. We have both with Barack Obama.

We have big problems that we can’t avoid any longer. We need a smart and capable leader. Barack Obama seems to be the right person at the right time with the right skills for the problems we face right now. I can’t imagine anyone better. That’s why I have already voted for him, and that’s why I hope he wins in a landslide tomorrow.

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