So it's getting late on a Friday night and I've drank a few beers so it seems like old times again.
One thing that I've been puzzling a bit over is Barack Obama. He actually seems interesting. Seems like a genuine idealist, give or take. And this is the weird thing about the American political system, it means someone who has essentially no "political" experience like this guy - and is therefore less exposed to the pollution of compromise - has a shot at the White House. To the best of my memory, he's even ended up in the Senate by accident. Sure he was spotted by the watchers even before that convention speech. But from his books there's no doubt he's both intelligent and idealistic - even passably honest for a politician.
So the Democratic race is interesting. A woman and a Black man facing off. Against a party that has caused a war to make Viet Nam look sensible - you'd think one of them has to make history.
And I don't like Hilary Clinton. She's part of the political class, part of those who subsume power. Obama seems much more interesting. I watched his announcement speech, and there was a something to the guy. All those West Wing viewers who yearned during the first Bush administration for the sort of president who was intelligent and thoughtful and leaned left should be flocking to help this guy: he's an even more photogenic version of Jed Bartlett, only without the New England WASC history.
So despite my well-earned attitude to politicians, I do accept that there's something still sincere about this guy. he has actually got into politics from an idealistic position. That's common enough - the new UK PM Brown is also an idealist, or at least a moralist. But Brown is terminally compromised by the dirty little deals he's made to get to where he is. Obama is busy making huge amounts of money, but he doesn't seem so far to have made any huge sales.
Can he win? I don't know enough. It's probably as likely as him getting assassinated, so either way I'd say that's a fairly high odds. America with an intelligent Black internationalist left president would be very interesting. Perhaps thoug, all it would teach us, is how little a president really has when positioned against the stranglehold of the multinationals.
So unless the US of A is going to finally address its system of business, then the figurehead is probably irrelevant.
