What's Wrong With Hope?

Well, another week and Obama has gone to ten in a row. Not a bad streak. No BIG pundit beatings this week. Either things are falling into place- or the pundits have scaled back their BIG projections and insights. Obama did score a far bigger victory than expected- but then again, that is really what we have come to expect in these past weeks. What it looks like is that Obama has continued the steady progress he has been making over the past weeks. It also appears that McCain has solidified his position and that not much else will happen there until the convention. He's already targeting the Obama campaign as his main target, and probably rightly so.

I have to admit that watching Hillary last evening as she gave her speech in Youngstown, OH, I saw again why she was the front-runner and would make a good president. She has the strength of person and style that says, "I am a leader!" So does Obama,

So what about Obama? He has been criticized a lot that he is a man of words but has not shown us action. He has been accused of offering hope- accused of giving us hope. How sad it is when hope becomes something someone can be accused of instead of congratulated for. Sure there is false hope, hope based outside reality, hope based on wishful thinking. But isn't that what every politician gives us anyway? Whether right, left, or middle every politician has to be a bringer of hope.

Jimmy Carter couldn't argue when Ronald Reagan asked if people were better off then than when Carter came to office. Reagan offered hope- a new morning in America. John Kennedy told us that the torch had been passed to a new generation. Hope. Roosevelt reminded us that we only had to fear fear itself. Hope.

Can Obama turn that hope he so clearly offers into reality? I don't know. Nor do I know if Clinton or McCain can with their promises of hope. But we all must live on hope. We need it. Without it we lose any reason for living. George W. promised us hope- he was a uniter. So, yes, we as a people know false sources of hope.

Let's listen to the ideas, listen to the style, listen to the person under the political face. I think we are fortunate that in general I think all three of the possible candidates will give us themselves. It is just which one we think can do what they say.

Which is always what elections are about.