Todd Gitlin's interesting Obama endorsement

[cali]

If you don't know who he is: He's an interesting guy. Sociologist, old SDS lefty, quite an honest and smart guy. Writer, intellectual, Professor.

"Jumping the Fence to Obama
By Todd Gitlin - February 4, 2008, 1:05PM

A couple of weeks ago, I was still agonizing, though leaning Obama. The New Republic asked me to tell a waiting world where I was going. At that point, I celebrated the dawn of each new day with a ride on the roller coaster. Well, a few days later, by the time my little piece came out, I'd tilted. For what it's worth, the path of my pilgrim's progress might be of interest to other wobblers.

Here was my reasoning on Jan. 21:

"Between Clinton and Obama, on paper, not much daylight shines through....On positions, totting up the apples and oranges as best I can, it’s Clinton on points, though not a knockout....Then, the question of governing method....If nothing else, the egregious Bush years ought to instruct us that it matters hugely how the president thinks, or fails to think; whom he or she consults with. On foreign policy, each would be far better than the simple absence of Bush, splendid as that would be, but I prefer Obama’s Brzezinski and Samantha Powers to Clinton’s Albright and Holbrooke. (On domestic matters, which of course aren’t strictly domestic, I’m rather tired of Robert Rubin.)"
A big question, then, was what kind of governing will these candidates do?

And I wondered: "I applaud Obama for saying that he wants to eliminate nuclear weapons from the world, but what will he do to get that done? On global warming will he face down big oil? On health care, big pharma? And the other bigs? He wins on eloquence, which bodes well to rally public support—if that’s what he wants to do. About this, with all his talk about table participants, he’s cagey.

<snip>

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/02/04/jumping_the_fence_to_obama/

[Dogmudgeon]

1. Hillary gets the most points; Obama wins on "eloquence".

And he tipped because of the Clintons' "tasteless moves" -- covered in loving detail by the press he prides himself on being wary of.

There are many good reasons to vote for Obama. Why are so many otherwise intelligent people making an important decision based on an emotional high?

:shrug:

--p!