Game Change

Reading Game Change. A non-fiction, intimately detailed account of the 2008 Presidential campaign told specifically from the perspective of Barack and Michelle, Bill and Hillary, and McCain/Palin.
Heady stuff.
I like it because it gives you a perspective you don't get from the media or anything else you have read or seen. The two guys who wrote it are insider journalists who put the thing together ethically, promising anonymity where it made sense and offering explicit details that are not malicious. They were trusted by the people they interviewed so you are getting good stuff.
One great story concerned President Obama a few days before the Iowa caucuses. Apparently he is a cool character. Sleeping like a rock throughout the campaign. But it became apparent that he might win Iowa, which was considered crucial to his campaign. On this night he woke up at three a.m., sat bolt upright in his bed and thought "I might win this thing."
I suppose the prospect of becoming President of the United States would unnerve anyone.
It's cool the way his whole campaign materialized before he ever considered running. He began noticing the response of crowds at speaking events and other public appearances and so did those around him. In the United States and outside the United States. High ranking members of Congress began urging him to run, putting the thought into his head.
Slowly the realization came around that something special was happening here, unprecedented. All about timing, being in the right place and being the right man for the job.
I have said repeatedly that his election was a fluke. I don't believe Americans are bright enough to make a choice like that. But what I keep getting from the book was the reaction from people that they were so sick of the political game in this country, that they were looking for  a change, someone who would impact their lives positively, looking for hope. And Barack Obama had the aura, the charisma, the intelligence and the fire. Regardless of race.
When this became apparent to his team, one of his top aides said he felt they had been handed "a porcelain baby." Something very precious and very fragile.
How very true.
The republicans are trying with everything they got to shatter that porcelain baby. To make President Obama the villain, the incompetent. Ironically to project their own short comings onto him. They want to be able to say "See, you thought he was going to save you, but he let you down."
Of course they are doing this with lies and innuendo and by blocking every single initiative the President proposes regardless of the welfare of this country.
Michelle Obama was the biggest opponent to her husband running, when it was in the discussion stages. Because of the impact it would have on their marriage and their children. And she was the only one gutsy enough to ask if he would be safe. If enough protection could be provided to make him secure.
The rest of the team avoided the issue because they felt it was a touchy subject and one they were not qualified to offer an opinion on as white men. She is a gutsy lady and I respect her for that.
Carol and I are meeting with a rep from the committee to re-elect President Obama tonight. We met months ago but all initiative was lost through invisible e-mails and a haze and a daze.
So we're going to try to crank it up again, and reading this book is timed perfectly. It has me vibing and striving.
Because President Obama will not enjoy the unprecedented support he had last time, Especially from the young. They are the most vulnerable to cynicism because they thought they had elected a unique animal, an anti-politician. And all they have seen is job loss, bank corruption, a failing economy and a narrowing of future prospects for them.
The level of sacrifice and suffering on the part of us wee folk has been so enormous and so frightening that the truth can be easily overlooked.
President Obama has accomplished enormous things on his watch against all odds, and the instability of the economy and by implication our very lives is more attributable to republicans past and present than to the President.
His presidency is indeed a porcelain baby, and this campaign is the most crucial in our country's history.
We have been given a gift, and we have to preserve it. There is hope, if President Obama is allowed four more years to fight. Eight years of enlightenment might be just enough to open the door a crack. To wake this country up to reality and sow the seeds of dignity back into the lives of the wee folk.