Monday, January 21, 2008

I liked Obama...   [Lisa Schiffren]

I only watched part of the debate. But it is simply impossible to listen to John Edwards. Everything he says is entirely predictable, his face is annoyingly wrinkle-free and hairless in some odd way, and the slight hint of tremulousness as he finds an opportunity to insert some sad story makes me want to barf. And I don't believe a word he says. Remind me again, what has he actually done for anyone outside of a courtroom?

Hillary is just so familiar. She is smart enough. Her rhetoric is meant to persuade, not inspire, but it is all so calculated and we have heard this so long that it is hard to be persuaded. She is working very hard not to look as if she is taking anything for granted, while also looking as if she's already taken the test and knows the answers while the other two are working it out. That format — sitting in chairs — did her no favors. It physically diminished her, and made the pants suit — which was not as flattering as her usual ones — look lumpy. Also — and I know of what I speak here — she is not tall enough to cross her legs elegantly and comfortably for any period of time, leaving her sitting somewhat gracelessly. That is a disadvantage when seated next to someone tall and lanky, like Obama. Her biggest weakness is Bill. Every time he came up — which was a lot — I hoped everyone else in TV land had that vague sense of ennui that could lead to a decision not to bring back the Clinton show. But you know, she sure is dogged. And that audience sees the world exactly as she does.

Obama — yes, Andy, lots of wind. But he really is very intelligent. And I was persuaded that he meant it when he kept talking about breaking free from the jargon and politics of the past. O.K., it's rhetoric. And there are only so many ways to formulate the problems and the solutions. And any president comes to Washington and learns right quick how hemmed in he is by the permanent bureacracy and the interests. But on a bunch of issues of race and poverty and family disintegration in particular, we really do need new paradigms (much as I hate that phrase). We can't really still be bound by the thinking behind The Great Society. (That is what I think of Hillary's nod to LBJ.) We know where it leads. So, Obama's great strength is that he seems intellectually alive, and kind of interesting. He, alone of the three, knows that we have just come through thirty years of unparalleled economic growth. Even — especially — in the South. He is the only possible answer to "which one would you choose to have dinner with?" He might actually say something that wasn't entirely a matter of positioning, just because it was interesting — or true.

01/21 11:53 PMShare